Ndeewo, President Muhammadu Buhari.

I protest the manner in which the security crisis in Zamfara State is handled.

I have been silent, to a large extent, on the banditry issue.

Much of the information peddled on social media is no more than drama and victimfeigning.

The former is political; the latter a camouflage for the reluctance of the public to provide relevant information to the Police.

Yes, bandits are ravaging Zamfara State.

Yes, citizens - farmers, travellers, homeowners – are assaulted, abducted, robbed, and raped.

Yes, security officers deployed to the area, often do not return alive.

1. How can there be zero information on bandits’ identity?
I call foul on that.
The Hausa-Fulani are a highly closed ethnicity.
Anyone not the same as them or whose behaviour does not conform to theirs is known and marked.
Information about such nonadherrents is collected.

2. Such persons are monitored, their movements documented, and (dis)information about them disseminated.
Gossip is actually a favourite pastime.

3. The Hausa-Fulani are highly structured.
Information about nonadherrents is transmitted to community and religious leaders.

4. The speed with which information about nonadherrents is spread is much more efficient than one would think.
Typically, information is conveyed within minutes and reaches every one of the associates of the Hausa-Fulani, both adults and children.

5. The belief system of the Hausa-Fulani revolves on protecting their own no matter the crime, for they all go to their paradise.
Worse, the belief system accommodates crime and criminals.

6. A combination of (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5) means the identity and whereabouts of bandits are known, but no one is eager to bell the cat, so to speak.

7. It is very possible that community leaders and perhaps security agents are shielding the bandits.

8. For the above points, why on Earth are nonHausa-Fulani security officers deployed into the forests of Zamfara to apprehend bandits the community are not prepared to identify?

Word on the street is that the deployment is a tactic to settle scores.
Word is some officers have been executed in the bush, ambushed by bandits or shot by colleagues.
An impromptu discussion with security officers on the challenges they face could help the Government and Force Headquarters comprehend events on the ground.

In this regard, may I humbly suggest the visiting official – President, Vice-President, Inspector-General Of Police, et cetera – personally choose, at random, officers whose views are to be heard.

This is to avoid listening to a scripted delivery from previously doctored officers.

In plain terms, one gets to have a true feel of events and not just what certain persons want one to hear.

There is an urgent need to investigate whether information is leaked directly or indirectly to bandits.

Who are the insiders?

Kwongu.

The one and only,

Umm Sulaim

To limit the damage, block the garbage.

•Umm Sulaim is the Publisher of Umm Sulaim’s Thoughts (https://iamummsulaim.wordpress.com).
Copyright © 2019 Umm Sulaim. All rights reserved.

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