Banditry: Christian Clerics, Others Call for Arrest of Bafarawa, Yerima over Killings in North-west

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

A group of inter-faith religious leaders from northern Nigeria, styling themselves as the Concerned Northern Inter-Faith Clergy for Peace, has urgently called on President Bola Tinubu to order the immediate arrest and prosecution of former governors Attahiru Bafarawa of Sokoto State and Ahmed Sani Yerima of Zamfara State respectivey.

The clerics led by Bishop Sunday Bawa in a press conference in Abuja, alleged that the two ex-governors bear responsibility for laying the foundations of the rampant banditry terrorising the North-west region.

The appeal, issued in a strongly worded statement during the Yuletide season, references a widely circulated video released earlier this month by notorious bandit kingpin Bello Turji.

In the video, Turji accused Bafarawa and Yerima of seizing and selling vast grazing reserves designated for herders and arming vigilante groups, known as Yan Banga, which he claimed targeted and killed Fulani communities.

These actions, Turji alleged, sparked ethnic tensions and cycles of reprisal attacks that escalated into the current wave of kidnappings, massacres, and cattle rustling.

“Even though Turji is a confessed terrorist… we cannot ignore his words,” the clergy said in a statement signed by Imam Sheikh Yusuf Sarki, Bishop Pius Dauda and 10 others.

The group emphasised that the allegations point to deep-rooted issues of land dispossession and armed vigilantism that allowed criminal gangs to evolve into the “monsters” now plaguing the region.

The inter-faith body, comprising imams, pastors, bishops, and other spiritual leaders, expressed solidarity with bereaved families who have also petitioned President Tinubu for an investigation into the claims.

These families, many of whom have lost loved ones to bandit attacks, described the president as their “last hope” for justice after local efforts yielded no results.

Bawa  highlighted the devastating toll of banditry, describing it as an “unfolding genocide.”

They cited figures indicating over 13,485 deaths from banditry between 2010 and May 2023, with at least 2,266 killed in the first half of 2025 alone—surpassing the total for all of 2024.

Reports from bodies like Amnesty International and the National Human Rights Commission document thousands kidnapped, injured, or displaced, while economic losses run into trillions of naira due to disrupted farming, trade, and ransoms.

The statement criticised responses from Bafarawa and Yerima as “empty echoes” and denials, noting that the former governors claimed no significant banditry existed when they left office in 2007 and questioned the timing of the accusations.

“Time heals no guilt,” the clerics retorted, arguing that evasion only fuels suspicion and impunity.

In a direct Yuletide appeal to President Tinubu, the group urged him to “immediately direct the arrest and prosecution” of the two former governors for “alleged acts that laid the foundations of this terror.”

They further called for a transparent, independent probe—possibly with international oversight—into the allegations, alongside measures to address root causes like poverty and land disputes.