Nigerian city on high alert due to influx of bandits

Mounted police in Kano, the commercial center and most populous city of Northern Nigeria

Security forces in northern Nigeria’s largest city, Kano, are on high alert against an influx of criminal gangs fleeing military offensives elsewhere, according to a leaked report by AFP.

Northwestern and central Nigeria have been terrorized for years by gangs of criminals known as bandits, who plunder and pillage villages, kill and kidnap residents, and burn down houses.

The gangs maintain camps in a vast forest spanning the states of Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger, and have become infamous for the mass kidnapping of school students.

An intelligence report sent by the Zamfara State Governor’s office to Kano Police on Monday warned that bandits from Zamfara were turning Kano into “their safe haven”.

The document underlines the growing security threat posed by bandits as they move beyond their usual territory into the cosmopolitan city of about 4.5 million.

The spread of banditry to the regional commercial hub appears to have worried authorities

Kano is far from the epicenter of the violence and the spread of banditry to the regional commercial hub appears to be worrying authorities.

The report was signed by Bashir Makama, an Assistant Superintendent of Police attached to the State Intelligence Department (SID) in the Office of the Governor of Zamfara State, and shared with other security agencies in Kano.

It said the influx followed “the ongoing military assault on armed bandits and their collaborators in states such as Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara”.

The Nigerian Army has in recent weeks launched extensive operations against bandits in Zamfara and Sokoto to tackle the worsening deadly attacks by bandits on remote villages.

The military offensives have led to the killing of several leaders, including Halilu Sububu, considered the top bandit leader in northwestern Nigeria.

– Bandit real estate –

The document states that informants working for the bandits have moved to Kano and have reportedly purchased houses to use as “escape routes” for themselves, as well as for bandit leaders and their families.

It was not specified how many bandits had moved to the city, but six neighborhoods were identified where they bought houses and settled with their families.

The report urged police to investigate real estate agents and profile homebuyers from Zamfara and Sokoto to identify the bandits.

“It is true that we received this information from Zamfara. We are already aware of the infiltration of bandits and terrorists in parts of Kano and we have been working to tackle the menace,” a security source in Kano told AFP.

“We have been working quietly to avoid creating panic in the city,” the source said.

“We have not rested on our oars since 2009 when Boko Haram terrorists crowded into Kano from Maiduguri.

“This information from Zamfara is just a reminder that we should not be complacent,” said a second security source.

Both asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

A student inspects the damage to a lecture hall at Kano’s Federal College of Education in 2014, following an attack by Boko Haram gunmen

Kano attracts people from all over the region and neighboring countries. It paid a heavy price when Boko Haram jihadists moved from Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria following a military crackdown against the group’s 2009 insurgency.

The jihadists began buying houses on the outskirts of the city, and between 2012 and 2014 Kano was rocked by targeted killings, suicides and explosive attacks on schools, mosques, churches, bars and security formations, killing and wounding hundreds of residents.

The attacks paralyzed commerce in the commercial city, but residents fought back by providing information to security personnel about suspected new residents from the northeast, the birthplace of Boko Haram.

The information was used to conduct security raids and arrests that put an end to the attacks.