I relocated from Baje in the Shinkafi area of Zamfara state to Birnin Magaji due to continued armed banditry in our area. It started a long time ago and we were enduring up to the stage where we lost everything, including food, to it. These activities have led to a loss of hope for peaceful coexistence, which is why I relocated to Birnin Magaji six years ago. None of us has returned home because the government is always assuring us of peace, but there is no progress at all.
This banditry persists, and I know about eight households from Baje who have relocated to Birnin Magaji. They stole my cattle and kidnapped my daughter. I paid one million for her release. They kidnapped my wife too; I paid one million, five hundred thousand naira for her release. It’s worsened to the extent that my family and I don’t even have clothes to wear, let alone food to eat.
I’m now struggling with extreme poverty. It’s hard to clothe myself. My male children have left me stranded. I’m forced to work as a labourer both during the rainy and dry seasons, even though I am too old. I am almost 65 years old now, as you can see.
I’m surviving here with the aid of some people, especially what Sen. Yari gave us during this Ramadan. If not because of that aid, my family would have had to go and beg for pap to break their fast.
We’ve lost confidence in the government’s ability to restore peace. I’m telling you, even if peace is restored, I won’t return to the village, because they’ve destroyed everything, including our buildings. They removed everything from our buildings, including doors, windows, and roofing.
I’m living peacefully here in Birnin Magaji and have no intention of returning, considering the forms of disgrace and exploitation we experienced, and nobody is coming to help us. I don’t want to go back to that community.
Our farmland has now become a forest. Nobody is allowed to access his farm, and authorities are seeing it but not doing anything. I can even say we, as individuals, don’t know what security is because we haven’t seen it. I urge the government at all levels to do everything possible to end this banditry, even if we’re not going back to our respective villages.
As narrated by: Yahaya Baje – 65 (Birnin Magaji, Zamfara).
This snippet is published as part of the series, What We Lost to the Bandits.
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