Tobi Adebayo
Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Masari has said that the bandits terrorising the Northern part of Nigeria are of Fulani ethnic extraction.
Masari said this while speaking on Channels TV on Monday.
The governor also blamed climate change, illiteracy, drug abuse and other factors on the emergence of bandits in the North.
“They are the same people like me, who speak the same language like me, who profess the same religious beliefs as me. So, what we have here on the ground with these bandits, they are not aliens; they are people who we know.
“They are people who are living with us for hundreds of years. The infiltration we have from some West African countries and North African countries are also people of the Fulani extraction.
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“Majority of those involved in this banditry are Fulanis, whether it is palatable or not, but that is the truth. I’m not saying 100 per cent of them are Fulani, but the majority of them are. These are people who live in the forests where their main occupation is the rearing of cattle.
“Probably, over time, their fortunes dwindled with climate change. Lack of access to education also aggravated the situation.
“The fall of Gaddafi, instability in many West and North African countries, the influx of arms and ammunition, accompanied with illegal drugs and intoxicants that polluted the environment, that made them what they are and I think it is our responsibility to cure this.
“We in Katsina, together with other governors in the north-western region, are determined to cure this,” he said.
