Armed bandits operating in Zamfara State will, from this week, start laying down their weapons as a state government-backed peace deal gained more acceptance, Zamfara State police commissioner, Usman Nagogo, told Daily Trust on Sunday. The police boss, who coordinates the peace process that has so far led to the release of captives by the bandits and local vigilante groups, said the disarmament was part of the next phase in the peace process. He said the bandits would disarm after release of prisoners had been concluded.

Both bandits and vigilante groups who have been fighting each other in the state, have been holding a number of people captive, with the vigilante group claiming to be holding Fulani people captive, accusing armed men, mostly Fulani, of attacking and kidnapping members of rural communities, who are mostly Hausa farmers.

The police commissioner said bandits, on their own, were surrendering their weapons as a mark of acceptance of the deal.

“We are almost through with the issue of release of kidnapped persons. The disarmament process will begin next week. We are on top of the situation and we will sustain our effort to see that peace is restored. “I can tell you that a bandit had already surrendered his two rifles to the national chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Muhammadu Kiruwa, and more are willing to follow suit,” Nagogo said. He said the current peace pact of the command is ongoing, with a view to rescuing all victims in captivity of bandits and militia groups, as well as receiving all arms and other offensive weapons in their possession.

CP Nagogo last week said banditry attacks in Zamfara State had reduced by over 90 per cent, attributing the development to the talks initiated with the armed groups and vigilante. Nagogo heads the state’s Peace and Reconciliation Initiative set up by Governor Alhaji Bello Mutawalle to negotiate “a complete ceasefire” between bandits and vigilante. Last week, a deal many have described as a landmark achievement was struck between the local vigilante groups in Zamfara State, known as Yan Sa Kai, and leaders of armed bandits, leading to the release of dozens of captives by both sides. The peace deal was initiated by Governor Bello Muhammad Mutawalle shortly after he took oath of office. The prisoner exchange was celebrated as a mark of acceptance of the peace process by the two sides, especially the bandits who have sacked many communities and barred farmers from tilling their lands, in addition to killing hundreds of people.

But there are worries about sustaining the pact, as a previous deal that resulted in the armed groups surrendering hundreds of weapons to government collapsed after both sides accused each other of breaching its terms. Government officials and security agents backing the fresh process have, however, expressing optimism about it, fired by the release of captives and commitment to do more by both sides. The vigilante members were the first to set free, people of Fulani extraction they held captive, after weeks of diligent and painstaking negotiations being perfected and spearheaded by the state commissioner of police, Usman Nagogo. They set 25 people in their custody free.

The released captives were held in captivity for almost five months and were mostly women they took as retaliation to a series of abductions of people working on farms, in rural markets, as well as towns and villages by the armed men. They were received at the palace of the Emir of Dansadau and taken to Gusau, the state capital, by a team of mobile policemen, led by CP Nagogo. To reciprocate the gesture, the bandits released some people in their custody.

Following a series of meetings and interactions that brought the two parties together, agreements have been reached that led to the exchange of more captives by the two sides. Mr Nagogo led a team of security operatives to Shinkafi Local Government Area, where he successfully negotiated the release of 15 kidnapped victims, mostly Hausa. These victims were kidnapped by armed bandits and had been in captivity for about three months. There was an unconditional release of four persons in Gidan Dawa village of Kauran Namoda Local Government Area and another seven persons in Kamarawa village in Shinkafi Local Government Area respectively. These victims were held for about two months.

Through the ongoing peace initiative, the authorities also perfected the release of 8 captives from Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State. The victims, who were kidnapped for about four months, are natives of Mai Awaki village in Dansadau Emirate of Maru Local Government Area. Another 12 kidnapped victims, who were held in captivity at Shinkafi LGA but who are indigenes of Sokoto State were rescued by the police through the ongoing peace process.

A team from Sokoto, led by the state’s deputy governor, arrived Gusau to take the victims back home. Latest in the series of the release of kidnapped persons was when the armed men willingly returned 14 captives who were held in Rukuduwa forest for seven months. The armed bandits had, Tuesday night, dropped the kidnapped persons at a location near Gobirawa, a village located 5 kilometres from Zurmi town.

“When the news of their release filtered, youths on almost 200 motorbikes rushed to pick them in jubilation because the victims could not regain their freedom, even after N1.5m was paid as ransom from their families,” a resident, Ashiru Zurmi said.

However, the state police commissioner, Mr Nagogo, told Daily Trust on Sunday that the armed men informed him of their intention to willingly free the victims, and he ordered the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) to pick them when they were released. Disarmament begins this week.

Our correspondent spoke to a representative of a cattle rustling kingpin, notoriously known as Ado Alero, who was one of the armed bandits terrorising the Tsafe-Mada axis in the state. Authorities had earlier met with Alero in a forest near Munhaye community in Tsafe Local Government Area to pass a message of peace to him.

However, sources privy to the meeting disclosed that he made three demands. First, he demanded for the compensation of about 400 cows he lost to the crisis, a house burnt by Yan Sakai and the re-establishment of cattle routes and grazing lands.

“Alhaji Alero has just spoken to me now. He and other armed bandits are holding a meeting inside the forest. I will go and discuss with him about what transpired here at the peace meeting. I can assure you that we are committed to the peace pact,” the representative at the peace meeting told Daily Trust on Sunday.

•Excerpted from a Daily Trust report.