Nigeria has been under the stranglehold of Islamic terrorism since 2009. Yet, a worrisome new dimension being introduced is the collusion of citizens, bandits, insurgents and terrorists. Such betrayal is utterly deplorable. Citizens should be patriotic.
The citizen collaborators may not detonate a bomb or pull the trigger, but they are just as deadly as the terrorists they aid and abet.
In some instances, they are worse, as a recent report from Katsina illustrates. The state’s Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Nasir Mu’azu, said 80 per cent of bandit attacks in Katsina were aided by informants and other collaborators.
Such enablers are deeply embedded in the terrorists’ ecosystem, helping to sustain their nefarious enterprise. They should be treated as terrorists.
In one community, a collaborator sold a bottle of soft drink for N3,000; in another, a litre of petrol went for N5,000, Mu’azu said.
“Some members of the communities provide the bandits with (medication) and illicit drugs in high amounts, making it a lucrative business for them,” he said. “We (also) found a man who connived with bandits to abduct his diabetic, biological father. When the bandits brought him to their hideout, they had already reserved diabetic tablets for his daily consumption.” The collaborator got N8 million from his father’s N30 million ransom.
Mu’azu said informants alerted the bandits of Air Force jets’ flight schedules in Katsina, such that as the fighter jets took off at the airport for an airstrike operation, the forewarned criminals would disappear before the bombers arrived.
Intelligence and other security agencies must sniff out such dangerous saboteurs and punish them severely.
This can also apply to Borno, Yobe, Sokoto, Zamfara, Plateau, Benue, and other states where terrorism and banditry are rife. The government and security forces must focus attention on both collaborators and terrorists. Both deserve the same measure of justice.
Efforts should be ramped up to foster genuine community buy-in to the anti-terror war.
One of the six Law School students kidnapped in Benue State on July 26 en route to Yola said residents of the community where they were held for six days interacted with them before their release after paying a N10 million ransom each. Yet, none made any effort to free them or inform the authorities.
Is collaboration merely driven by self-preservation and the fear of repercussions if the criminals found they were given away? What case can be made for soldiers reportedly selling weapons and ammunition to terrorists or acting as informants? Or for traditional rulers conferring chieftaincy titles on terrorists?
In July 2022, a Zamfara emir installed a notorious bandit leader, Adamu Yankuzo, alias Ada Aleru, as the Sarkin Fulani of the emirate. Other traditional rulers have given such honours to terrorists who murdered thousands and abducted more for millions.
Even the government sends wrong signals when it spends money on “repentant” insurgents and sometimes incorporates them into the military only for them to continue passing vital intelligence to their murderous comrades, since their true loyalties never changed ab initio.
Nigeria recorded 565 terrorism-related deaths in 2024, a 6.0 per cent increase from 533 fatalities in 2023, per the 2025 Global Terrorism Index. Other reports indicate that over 2,266 people were killed in the first half of 2025.
Under the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, anyone convicted of terrorism, attempting, or facilitating it, faces life imprisonment or a term of between 20 and 70 years, depending on the severity of the crime.
By the provisions of the Terrorism Act, many members of Boko Haram, ISWAP, Ansaru, Lakurawa, Mahmuda, jihadist Fulani herdsmen, bandits, and killer secessionist groups ought to have been executed or sentenced to various jail terms. But the rate of arrests and prosecutions is still low despite unending terrorist attacks.
This should not be the case. Citizens should not betray their own friends, family and community members for pecuniary reasons. Any collaboration must be with the security forces, not terrorists.
The Punch
