According to local officials, the ordeal began when the bandit leader known as Jammo, who commands the Muntsira Forest area, extended an offer for reconciliation. This offer came in the wake of escalating tit-for-tat violence. Jammo’s lieutenant had reportedly been killed in a recent military operation at Kandare village, prompting his call for dialogue. Against the explicit policy of the state government, which firmly opposes any negotiations with bandits, the community elders from Magamin Diddi made the fateful decision to engage. They formed a fifty-member committee and ventured into the forest to meet with Jammo, hoping to broker an end to the hostilities that had crippled their lives.
The mission was a trap. Upon their arrival, Jammo betrayed their trust, seizing the entire delegation. The chairman of Maradun Local Government, Hon. Bello Dosara, confirmed the kidnapping, expressing both frustration and worry. He clarified that the people acted without government clearance or support. Dosara revealed a grim irony in the situation; his administration had been providing weekly security escorts to enable villagers to access the local market, as Jammo had blocked their routes. He found it bewildering that the community would then choose to secretly meet with the same individuals who were terrorizing them. In a small gesture of cruel theatre, Jammo later released eleven of the captives, not out of mercy, but specifically to send a message back to the community about the severity of their predicament. Thirty-nine elderly men and women remain in captivity.
The context provided by the Councillor of Magami/Faru ward, Bello Husseini, paints a picture of a protracted and bloody feud. The conflict between Jammo’s group and the Zamfara State security outfit, known as ‘Askarawa’, has seen significant losses on both sides. Previously, Askarawa forces killed two of Jammo’s lieutenants and confiscated their weapons. In a reprisal attack during the last fasting period, the bandits retaliated in kind, killing two Askarawa personnel and taking their rifles. This cycle of violence created a tense stalemate, which Jammo’s reconciliation offer ostensibly sought to break. However, Husseini is vehemently opposed to any deals, stating that the bandits are fundamentally untrustworthy, capable of speaking one truth amid a hundred lies. He emphasized that the kidnapped individuals were respected elders who had approached the meeting in good faith, only to be brutally deceived by Jammo’s false claims of being tired of banditry.
The bandit kingpin has now laid out his demands, further complicating any potential resolution. He is reportedly asking for a ransom of twenty-four million naira specifically for the three rifles seized from his group. For the local officials, this only confirms that the bandits’ motives are purely predatory. Both Chairman Dosara and Councillor Husseini have issued a joint and urgent appeal to higher authorities. They are calling on the state government and federal security forces to launch a decisive military assault on the bandits’ stronghold, referred to as “Dajin Natsira.” Their plea is rooted in a stark observation: these particular bandits have never faced a serious, concerted military confrontation throughout the history of banditry in Zamfara. They argue that a single, sustained patrol operation positioned just five kilometres from the affected villages could yield immediate and positive results, disrupting the bandits’ operations and freeing besieged communities.
The officials also made a broader strategic point, suggesting that a forceful operation in the Muntsira Forest would have a cascading effect on security across the state. They believe that bombing or clearing this forest would bring peace to at least six other local government areas, including Talata Mafara, Bakura, and Anka, by dismantling a key hub of criminal activity. Their appeal is directed at both Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal and the State Minister for Defence, Bello Matawalle, urging them to finally take the decisive action that has been so long in coming. Councillor Husseini, who himself has been forced to migrate from his ward due to the unbearable insecurity, provided chilling detail on Jammo’s reach, describing him as the overall ruler of a network of settlements within the forest, each with its own sub-leader. This incident, where a community’s desperate quest for peace was met with treachery, stands as a tragic testament to the complex and brutal reality facing rural Nigerians, where official policy, community desperation, and criminal opportunism collide with devastating human cost. The fate of the thirty-nine remaining elders is a somber reminder of the urgent need for a secure and just resolution.
