No fewer than 37 people kidnapped by bandits in the Bakori Local Government Area (LGA) of Katsina have been freed by their abductors.

Alhaji Abdulrahman Kandarawa, the lawmaker representing Bakori constituency at the State House of Assembly, disclosed this to newsmen in Katsina on Friday.

According to him, the victims, comprising 17 women, two children, and 18 men, regained freedom on Friday, following a peace deal with bandits in the area.

He explained that the kidnap victims were released without payment of ransom as part of the agreement reached during the dialogue.

The lawmaker said that with the development, “no kidnapped victim from Bakori is still with the kidnappers, except if we are not aware of them.

“I want to assure you that, at the moment, there are no more victims in the forest from this local government area.
“Therefore, I am appealing to the people in our communities to maintain the relative peace we are presently enjoying,” he said.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Mohammed Badaru Abubakar has said that bandits and terrorists are hiding in the forests to avoid bombs.

The minister stated this in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service, which was monitored in Gusau, the capital of Zamfara State.

He highlighted the dangers of bombing bandits’ hideouts, noting that military operatives are close to ending banditry in the country, even amid recent school kidnappings.

Badaru pointed out that the pattern of attacks resembles guerrilla tactics, saying criminal groups strike unexpectedly to create fear.

“This is how guerrilla warfare operates. There are calm times followed by attacks that alarm the nation,” the minister added.

He said that they know the locations of these groups, but some areas are risky for civilians, noting that some forests are inaccessible to bombs.

“We never claimed the problem was fully resolved. However, the recent kidnappings of schoolchildren concern us. We are analysing what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future.”

“This is how guerrilla warfare works. There will be periods of calm, and then they launch an attack that shakes the nation. Yes, we know their locations, but some of these areas are places where direct strikes could endanger civilians, or forests where our bombs cannot penetrate,” he said.

Badaru confirmed that troops are working continuously to neutralise these networks. He expressed concern over renewed attacks on schools and noted that the government has ordered a full investigation into recent incidents.

“We never said the problem was completely over. But this renewed kidnapping of schoolchildren worries us. We are studying what went wrong and how to prevent a recurrence,” he said.