We Receive Weapons From SSS Agents, Split Ransom Payments — Bandits

Armed bandits terrorising different parts of Nigeria have
disclosed that they have been receiving arms and ammunition from
operatives of the State Security Service and often split ransom
payments received at gunpoint.

The
criminals told Deutsche Welle^[1] in a
recent report that they “borrow weapons” from the state agents and
then go to work to share ill-gotten gains together.

The bandits also said some police officers have been a part of
the conspiracy that has fueled insecurity across Nigeria which
President Muhammadu Buhari has been accused of being too lazy to
address.

A spokesman for the SSS did not return a request seeking
comments from Peoples Gazette about whether or not the secret
police was aware of a possible alliance between its officers and
armed bandits wreaking havoc across the country.

The report surfaced amidst widespread claims that Nigerian
security forces are fueling insecurity for financial benefits. In
2018, Theophilus Danjuma, a former chief of army staff, said the
Nigerian military and other state agents were actively supplying
weapons to violent criminals waging a war against minority rural
settlers in Nigeria’s north-central.

The Buhari administration denied the allegation, but several
indications have emerged repeatedly since then that appeared to
show that the government was not as concerned about the raging
crisis.

Last week, Mr Buhari warned Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue,
where armed militia elements have killed thousands and razed
hundreds of villages since Mr Buhari assumed power in 2015, to
either accept the controversial ruga policy or continue to endure
violence with his people.

Last month, Mr Buhari also stood by Isa Pantami, one of his
cabinet ministers who was recently exposed as a hardline jihadist
and lover of Osama Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and other groups and persons
long associated with terrorism.

Armed bandits terrorising different parts of Nigeria have
disclosed that they have been receiving arms and ammunition from
operatives of the State Security Service and often split ransom
payments received at gunpoint.

The
criminals told Deutsche Welle^[1] in a
recent report that they “borrow weapons” from the state agents and
then go to work to share ill-gotten gains together.

The bandits also said some police officers have been a part of
the conspiracy that has fueled insecurity across Nigeria which
President Muhammadu Buhari has been accused of being too lazy to
address.

A spokesman for the SSS did not return a request seeking
comments from Peoples Gazette about whether or not the secret
police was aware of a possible alliance between its officers and
armed bandits wreaking havoc across the country.

The report surfaced amidst widespread claims that Nigerian
security forces are fueling insecurity for financial benefits. In
2018, Theophilus Danjuma, a former chief of army staff, said the
Nigerian military and other state agents were actively supplying
weapons to violent criminals waging a war against minority rural
settlers in Nigeria’s north-central.

The Buhari administration denied the allegation, but several
indications have emerged repeatedly since then that appeared to
show that the government was not as concerned about the raging
crisis.

Last week, Mr Buhari warned Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue,
where armed militia elements have killed thousands and razed
hundreds of villages since Mr Buhari assumed power in 2015, to
either accept the controversial ruga policy or continue to endure
violence with his people.

Last month, Mr Buhari also stood by Isa Pantami, one of his
cabinet ministers who was recently exposed as a hardline jihadist
and lover of Osama Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and other groups and persons
long associated with terrorism.