INSTIGATORS IN RADICALISATION OF THE UPSURGE TRENDS OF ARMED BANDITRY IN ZAMFARA STATE, 2019-2024

Abstract

Undeniably, armed banditry is one of the misanthropic phenomena that have precipitated unprecedented tapestry in indiscriminate killings of innocent victims, displacement of persons, undermining socio-economic advancement, gender-based sexual violence (GBSV), and redirection of governmental policies towards containment and curtailment of deleterious violence mitigation, among others. The upsurge trend in armed banditry lethalities from 2012 has defied numbers of security mechanisms, up to when it reached its peaks between 2019 and 2024 under the past and incumbent democratic dispensations. Added to extant deodorisation security strategies of their severity was the culmination of the recent inauguration of the local vigilante (Askarawa) in December, 2023. Though, this was a hybridization of modern conflict mitigation tactics and strategies to complement militarism and other forms of security apparatus implemented, albeit deprived of sophisticated weapons to match with armed bandits. Based on the rhetoric, the study attempt a historical exploration of identification of the susceptible and precipitable instigators that culminated in the radicalisation upsurge trends of the armed banditry truculent acts in Zamfara State. The study identified among the internal and external instigators to have arises from disruptions and trammeling of the official grazing routes (brutalli), cattle rustlings, deliberate immiserisation and blistering corruption, illegal gold mining, fragility and ineptitude of democratic governance, among others. The paper suggested serious disarticulation of armed banditry tactics and attacks through genuine containment and curtailment of formidable security mechanism using the synthesis of both orthodox and pristine trajectories. Methodologically, the study employed the historical provenances of data elicitation (primary and secondary), using the qualitative style of interpretations.