Audu Lankai, a notorious bandit leader in Katsina State, has claimed that the spread of weapons among armed groups worsened because early conflicts between bandits and local vigilantes were not properly addressed.
In a documentary shared by News Central TV, speaking about the origins of the crisis, Lankai alleged that vigilantes once detained some of his associates, collected money from them, and later seized their rams. He argued that incidents like these fueled tensions and created a sense of injustice among members of his group.
According to him, the conflict was initially small and limited in scope. However, as disputes continued, many people reportedly left their communities and moved to forest areas where they could obtain weapons for protection and retaliation.
Lankai said that in the early stages of the conflict, only a handful of AK-47 rifles could be found in the forests. He noted that the number of weapons has since grown dramatically, making the security situation far more dangerous than it was at the beginning.
The bandit leader maintained that if authorities had intervened quickly and resolved the disputes when they first emerged, many people would not have felt the need to arm themselves or abandon their homes.
In his words, “There were fewer AK-47s in our forest, probably from 6 to 10. But now only God knows. For example, you would find someone with 1000 AK-47s.”
