Banditry: 33,000 Children Now Orphans Nigerian President’s State

As the Northern part of Nigeria continues to witness increased banditry, an insider in that part of the country has revealed to one of the national dailies that up to 33,000 children in President Muhammadu Buhari’s Katsina The state have been turned, orphans. 

Dr. Mahdi Shehu, a stakeholder in the state, who is a philanthropist, said this in reaction to the government’s plan to give amnesty to bandits. According to him, no compensation was given to victims of bandits. The plan by Katsina State Government to grant amnesty to repentant bandits is not going down well with Shehu.

Shehu, who is the chairman of Dialogue Groups in charge of restoring peace in the state, lamented that due to the activities of the criminals, over 33,000 children have become orphans in the state. According to him, in the last five years, over four thousand people have been killed, while over four thousand women have been widowed in different parts of the state, Daily Trust reports. 

”What is clearly known to us is that over four thousand people have been killed; over four thousand women have been widowed. 

“Over 33,000 children have been orphaned, houses worth millions have been burnt down, cattle stolen, and yet the government is talking about amnesty as if these lives mean nothing. “No compensation, no restitution, no rehabilitation, no reconstruction, no further plan to rehabilitate and resettle them, but yet the government came up with this idea of resetting the bandits,” he said. 

Meanwhile, outspoken former Nigerian federal lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani has condemned some state governments’ practice of giving houses, shops and farmlands to repentant bandits. 

Amid rising insecurity in the country, some northern governors have reached agreements with bandits to repent and drop their weapons in exchange for material gifts. Senator Sani, a former senator in the eighth Nigerian National Assembly, has condemned the practice, seeing it as one that encourages other youths to join banditry, especially those who are only paid stipends under the Federal Government’s social scheme.