Bandits Live Within Us, I Know Where They Live – Security Experts Bashir Kurfi

A security analyst and Convener of the Katsina Security Community Initiative, Bashir Kurfi has described the perpetrators of banditry as individuals without stable economic or social identities, making them difficult to organise or integrate into legitimate economic activities.

Kurfi, who has served as consultants to Libyan Government under Col. Ghaddafi’s on alternative to world bank, also questioned Nigeria’s intelligence and security screening process, following the reported arrest of suspected terrorists returning from the 2026 Hajj pilgrimage.

He was speaking during an interview on Frontline, a current affairs programme on Eagle 102. 5FM, Ilese Ijebu, Ogun State.

According to him, many initially engaged in cattle rustling before expanding into kidnapping for ransom and collaborating with terrorist groups for logistics and financial gains.

He said: “I think it is important to understand this banditry of how it is happening in the north. These bandits are basically those kind of people, kalamatas, elements.

“And they are very dangerous to our system because they have no definite class identity. You cannot mobilize bandits on fertilizer because he is not a farmer. He is a typical gangster, you can give him money to kill a revolutionary and he will.”

He described their operations as typically involving armed groups who live in forests before launching attacks on travellers and communities, where they carry out kidnappings and other violent crimes.

“Now, a lot of them get involved initially in basic cattle wrestling. They will attack Fulani. They are also from Fulani’s stock, but not all of them are Fulani’s.

“So they will attack, take their cows and wrestle them. So later on, when they develop, because of also the lexical attitude of the Nigerian system, it went wild.

“Then they went to the extent that they will kidnap people and ask for ransom. And then they link up with other terror organizations, like the Boko Haram, this one, and all this for logistic purposes to make some money.