Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina state has revealed that majority of bandits ravaging the state are Fulani herdsmen, with some of them infiltrating the country from neighbouring West African countries.
The governor of President Muhammadu Buhari’s state of origin, said the criminal elements who plunged the entire nation into unusual security crisis are mainly Fulani herdsmen.
Governor Masari made the claim on Monday while featuring on a Channels Television programme, ‘Politics Today’.
He revealed that the elements had same religion, language like himself, stressing that they had been living “with us for hundreds of years”.
He said, “Bandits are persons who speak same language like me. They profess the same religious beliefs like me.
“These bandits are not aliens, they are people we know. They are people that have been living with us for hundreds of years. The infiltration we have from some African countries and non-African countries, are people of the Fulani extraction.
“Majority of those involved in this banditry are Fulanis. Whether it is believable or not, that is the truth. These are people who live in the forest and their major occupation is rearing of cattle.”
Katsina is one of the several states in the North-West and North-Central regions particularly ravaged by bandits.
The bandits have continued to attack schools, abduct residents for ransom and carried out wanton killings in the state.
