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Shock as Bandit Leader Uses Peace Talks to Kidnaps 50 People

Published

5 days ago

Shock as Bandit Leader Uses Peace Talks to Kidnaps 50 People

A self-constituted dialogue committee from local communities, tasked with negotiating an end to hostilities in the area, was targeted in a recent incident.

Hon. Bello Dosara, the chairman of Maradun Local Government, confirmed the situation, noting that the villagers chose to engage with a notorious figure in the region without prior approval from either the local council or state government.

“We are against reconciliation with the bandits and Governor Dauda Lawal never supported that, but unknown to us the people chose to go on with it,” Dosara said.

According to the chairman, the local government had consistently provided weekly security escorts to help the villagers safely access and return from the local market after Jammo blocked their primary supply routes. The council boss expressed deep concern over why the community chose to engage their rivals independently despite the ongoing structural security support.

Following the mass abduction, the bandit leader released 11 elderly members of the delegation to deliver a message to the community, while the remaining 39 individuals are still being held hostage in the forest.

The Councilor representing the Magami/Faru ward, Bello Husseini, also speaking, revealed that the relationship between the community and the gang deteriorated after the state’s security outfit, the Askarawa, killed two of Jammo’s lieutenants and seized their rifles. In a reprisal attack during the last fasting period, the bandits killed two security personnel and took their weapons.

“You see we are one to one, they killed two of us and took away their rifles and we also killed them and possessed their firearms initially,” Husseini said.

Husseini explained that Jammo initiated the call for a truce after losing another operative in a recent military strike at Kandare village, a gesture the desperate community accepted against official state policy. Upon their arrival in the Muntsira forest for the meeting, Jammo betrayed the 50-man delegation, held them hostage, and is now demanding a sum of N24 million as a condition to release the captives and return the three seized firearms.

The councilor, who has since fled his ward due to the threat level, reiterated that the criminal group cannot be trusted and called for a military intervention.