A letter allegedly sent by bandits, made mockery of the on going military operations on their hideouts, saying no amount of military personnel can stop them from discharging their normal business of unleashing terror on Nigerians.
The Buhari government had boasted about the efficacy of its recent military operations against bandits in Zamfara State, in a recent statement by Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.
“In the different evil forests, when the Nigerian Air Force strikes from the sky, the remnants of the evildoers not killed immediately attempt to flee. The ground troops then pick them off like flies. I say it again. One has never been prouder of our troops. They are cleaning up the country,” Adesina had said in an article on his Facebook wall on Thursday titled, “I like this pampering. Don’t you?”.
While considerable successes may have been achieved on the fight against banditry, the recent letter, however, did sent the residents of border villages in Sokoto State, into huge panic mode, after a previous attack was carried out by bandits in the same area last week, killing several people.
The letter which was written in Hausa language, also contained a notice of impending against Shuni, a community in Dange/Shuni Local Government Area of Sokoto State.
The alleged notice of attack was discovered late on Saturday, under a tree in Kwanar Kimba Village of Shuni District, Dange/Shuni LGA, a resident revealed, according to a report by SR.
“The notice is written in Hausa language by suspected bandits threatening to destroy the villages of Shuni, Kwanar Kimba, Rikina and Dange, and it has thrown residents into panic,” the source stated.
The writers also boasted in the alleged notification that no force could stop them from carrying out their threat.
“A million army personnel will not stop us from carrying out the attack, which may be carried out any moment from now,” the alleged notice stated.
Nigerians were thrown into confusion following a recent report by This Day, claiming some bandits who fled from the ongoing military operation in Zamfara State on several motorcycles were on Friday ambushed along Maganda village in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, and killed by men of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
According to This Day, citing local sources close to Allawa community, most of the bandits neutralised resembled foreigners, saying: “From the dead bodies that we saw, they are not Nigerians, these are foreigners, all of them are carrying long hair like women.”
The report cast doubts as to whether or not the bandits being attacked by the Nigerian forces are actually the same ones Gumi has been advocating for amnesty.
Also from available footages of bandits seen with Gumi, and based on testimonies of freed kidnap victims, it is unclear which of the bandits are being “picked up like flies” as described by Adesina.