Hassan Dantawaye is the commander of bandits who recently
renounced violence following peace talks in Zamfara State. The
bandits, who are Fulani herdsmen, had been engaged in killing,
kidnapping and other crimes, which they blamed on cattle rustling
and harassment by security agencies and local vigilance group.
Dantawaye tells MAIHARAJI ALTINE about the peace initiative and
some of the atrocities they had committed.
Q: You recently said your people were forced into a
life of kidnapping, killing and other crimes because you were
unjustly treated by the government and society, how were you
treated unjustly?
A: Thank you so much for this question. We the Fulani have been
facing serious challenges, both from the government and cattle
rustlers, some of whom are our own people. I mean some bad eggs
among us. Most of them are not even citizens of this country.
We were living peacefully about 10 years ago. There was nothing
like cattle rustling or kidnapping let alone killings or
destruction of innocent people’s properties. The only issue we had
then was Fulani herders/farmers clashes and they were always
addressed by community leaders of both the farmers and the
Fulani.
Let me tell you the truth of the matter, cattle rustling was the
genesis of armed banditry in this country. Many Fulani like me have
lost their cattle to the rustlers. You know that the Fulani are
neither farmers nor traders; they depend solely on the rearing of
animals. So when cattle rustling started in our state in 2013, we
did all we could to draw the attention of the government to the
problem, to do something about it, but nothing was done to stop the
menace. The government ignored our numerous complaints. So as time
went on, most of us lost almost all of our animals, and as a result
of that, many decided to also engage in cattle rustling to regain
their lost animals and also sell some of the animals to buy food
and other things.
As time went on, the government realised that cattle rustling
was on the increase. So, the former governor, Alhaji Abdul’aziz
Yari, quickly ordered that no cow should be sold or taken out of
the state until it was certified that the person selling it or
taking it outside was the genuine owner of the animal.
So that was when we started having serious problems. We have
stolen cows but we had no money to buy food because we didn’t know
how to sell the animals. One day, an idea came to us that since the
kidnapping of people for ransom was being done in some parts of
this country and people were making money from it, we should adopt
that to get money for our needs. So you see, if the government had
acted fast and arrested the issue of cattle rustling at the time we
complained about it, we wouldn’t have been involved in these
heinous activities.
Q: You said you also faced serious harassment and
intimidation from security personnel and Yan Sakai (a local
vigilance group), can you expatiate on your
experience?
A: Of course, we faced serious harassment and intimidation from
the security personnel and the vigilance group, a factor that
further worsened the security situation in the state. The security
agents, particularly the police, have been levying charges on our
people. They had been collecting money from us unnecessarily simply
because both the government and society consider every Fulani man
as a criminal. When the ban on the sale of cattle was imposed by
the state government, the police took advantage of that to extort
money from even genuine Fulani people who own animals, whenever
they see them. This issue seriously aggravated the insecurity
problems in the state.
The vigilance group and Yan Sakai have also contributed to the
insecurity issue considering their negative attitude towards the
Fulani people. These two groups have turned themselves into groups
that are licensed to kill. They killed any Fulani man they
perceived as a bandit or cattle rustler and the government did not
take any serious action to stop the menace. Many of our people were
killed by these people. After realising that the government was not
ready to stop the killing of our people by these two groups, we
decided to pay back with reprisals. From that day, we decided to
kill at least 50 people whenever one of us was killed.
Q: You mentioned cattle rustling, how many cows are
you aware were rustled in the last one year, or
example?
A: Nobody can answer this question but l can tell you that more
than half of our people have lost their animals. Many of them have
died of hypertension, while several others have turned to beggars
as they have nothing left with them.
Q: What was your personal cattle rustling
experience?
A: Believe me, I lost 372 cows and a large number of sheep. My
family members have also lost many. In fact, that was my reason for
leaving my village and moving to the forest as an alternative home
and becoming a bandit, because I had nothing left to depend on.
Q: In the course of all that, did you share your
concerns with the government before your people resorted to
kidnapping and killing?
A: How many times do you want me to explain this? I told you
that we did all we could to convince the government to come to our
aid, particularly with regards to cattle rustling. The police had a
bad attitude towards our people and there was the persistent
killing of our people by the villagers and volunteer groups, but
our appeals to the government fell on deaf ears.
Q: What specific response did you
get?
A: Not much attention was given to our plight.
Q: How did you become the commander of the
bandits?
A: I became the commander because of my total commitment to the
plight of my people. They have respect for me because I am very
sincere and committed to protecting their interest. I am always
contacted by the present administration of Governor Bello Matawalle
for any peace accord and whatever he says is accepted by the
group.
Q: What do you do normally?
A: As to how?
Q: How do you discharge your duty as the leader of
the bandits?
A: The issue is now over. We have embraced peace moves initiated
by Governor Matawalle, as such; there is no need for me to tell you
the mode of operations since the chapter is now closed.
Q: Are you all Fulani
herdsmen?
A: Yes, the people under my command are all Fulani herdsmen. But
I cannot say that all bandits are Fulani people because there are
several instances where people from other tribes were arrested for
banditry. There are many people arrested for banditry and when you
look at their identities, you find out that some of them are not
Fulani.
Q: How was the group formed? Did you all come
together after identifying one another as victims of cattle
rustling and so on?
A: You are very correct. The majority of those in our group are
victims of armed banditry or other forms of intimidation by either
the security personnel or vigilance group. But there are also
others who only joined us to fight our enemies and also get
something for their families.
Q: Did they undergo any training before they started
kidnapping and killing?
A: No, they didn’t need any special training except only on how
to operate AK 47 or other weapons. Once a person knew how to use a
gun and fight his enemy, he had met our requirements. The
kidnapping issue is not something one can be trained on. We
normally had our targets. So we only sent our boys to go and kidnap
this or that person. We also blocked some roads and kidnapped
motorists.
Q: Many of you have surrendered weapons, guns and so
on after renouncing, how many have been submitted to the government
so far?
A: We surrendered some guns, but you know, the peace process is
still ongoing. We are still studying the situation in order to
ascertain the level of commitment and seriousness of the government
before we finally surrender all of our weapons. Don’t forget that
we had a similar peace accord with the past administration of
former Governor Yari, when thousands of weapons were surrendered to
the government. But at the end of the day, the peace accord failed
to yield any positive result. But, I trust the current peace accord
of the new governor, Alhaji Bello Matawalle. The governor is really
serious; that is why we have released almost all those people we
kidnapped in various places. We will soon surrender all the weapons
in our possession.
Q: How do your people get the
weapons?
A: This is top secret. I cannot disclose this for now but when
the time comes, I will answer your question.
Q: Why did you see kidnapping and killing as the
solution?
A: I told you earlier that we resorted to kidnapping because we
were left with no option as the government at that time banned the
sale of animals and we were almost out of cash to purchase food.
Similarly, we resorted to killing in order to avenge the killing of
our own people by the vigilance group and Yan Sakai.
Q: How many people were you involved in their
kidnap?
A: They were many. I cannot precisely tell you their number.
Q: What about killing? Is that something you can
talk about?
No.
Q: How were the peace talks with the vigilantes
initiated?
A: The peace talks were initiated by the state police
commissioner, Alhaji Usman Nagogo, who invited all the
stakeholders, that is the Fulani people, vigilance group and Yan
Sakai to a meeting where every group was given a chance to voice
their grievances. After a series of meetings, we all agreed that
there was a need for all of us to forgive one another and embrace
peace. We agreed to release the people we had abducted if the
government could also release our people that had been
imprisoned.
Governor Matawalle has not only accepted our request but has
also promised to provide us with government assistance for us to
live happily like our counterparts, the farmers. He has also
proscribed the activities of the vigilance group and Yan Sakai.
Q: The public has also had problems with the way
your herders also roam from place to place with their cattle,
destroying farm crops and so on? Will you say that is
fair?
A: I will not say that it is fair. You see, farmers depend on
their farms to survive and the Fulani depend on their animals. So
it is very unfair for the Fulani to destroy food crops. But
sometimes we have no alternative because more than 80 per cent of
grazing areas have now been encroached into by farmers. There used
to be enough grazing lands demarcated by the government in those
days mainly for cattle. They are called cattle routes. These lands
have been taken over by farmers and the government did not bother
much about it. So that is why we are having problems with those who
have encroached into the cattle routes and grazing lands. If this
issue is addressed by the government, I am telling you, the issue
of destruction of crops will be over.
Q: Many of your kidnap victims are still in
captivity; will you ensure the release of all these people
following the peace initiative?
A: As far as I am concerned, nobody is currently being held
captive in Zamfara State. We have released our captives and the
government has also released our people arrested by security
agents.
Q: But people are still being kidnapped, though the
situation has gone down, what are you doing to ensure that killing
and kidnapping stop totally?
A: We have not kidnapped anybody in one week as the government
is doing its best to fulfil its promise. Nobody was kidnapped or
killed during the Eid el Kabir festival. So there is relative peace
in the state now.
Q: How do you pass the message of peace across to
the various cells of bandits?
A: It is easy to communicate nowadays with mobile phones. So we
communicate with our people through phone calls.
Q: What do you think is the solution to all the
problems of insecurity in the country?
This is very simple. Justice is the solution to the problem of
insecurity in Nigeria.
Q: What do you mean?
A: I mean everybody should be treated justly and with fairness.
All Nigerians must be treated equally. The government should try as
much as possible to make sure that the right of every Nigerian is
adequately protected. If this is done, I assure you, the problem of
insecurity would be adequately addressed.
Culled from Punch