26 Katsina LGAs under bandits attack in 2023

Katsina State Deputy Governor Faruk Jobe has said about 26 of the state’s 34 local government areas were experiencing persistent attacks when the Dikko Radda administration assumed office in 2023.

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Mr Jobe spoke on Thursday while representing the governor at the Second Quarter 2026 North-west Zonal Conference of State Directors of Security at the State Security Service (SSS) headquarters in Katsina.

The conference, themed “Unite Against Terror,” brought together SSS directors and other security officials from across the North-west to discuss terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other security threats affecting the region, Channels Television reported.

Mr Jobe said the 26 local government areas experienced persistent attacks, but claimed the security situation had since improved significantly.

‘Propaganda is also a form of war’

Channels Television separately reported that Mr Jobe urged stakeholders to use propaganda to help the war against terror and called on the media to exercise greater responsibility in reporting security matters.

He cited the proliferation of citizen’s journalism and warned against what he described as indiscriminate dissemination of information.

However, the publicly reported remarks did not spell out what such a propaganda strategy would entail, including whether Mr Jobe was advocating counter-messaging against armed groups, correcting exaggerated claims about their operations, or limiting publicity around verified security incidents.

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26 LGAs once under attack

Mr Jobe said the administration inherited a significantly worse security situation in 2023.

“When we came on board, we had about 26 local governments that were consistently under attack,” The Guardian quoted him as saying.

He said killings, kidnapping for ransom and related crimes were widespread at the time, but that the situation had “improved tremendously” through a combination of kinetic and non-kinetic measures.

The 26-LGA figure provides a new baseline against which the administration’s claim of improvement can be assessed, although Katsina officials have used different descriptions to classify areas affected by insecurity.

An official Katsina State Government publication in January said that before the 2023 general elections, 19 LGAs were considered frontline areas affected by violent banditry and kidnapping.

The descriptions are not necessarily directly comparable. Mr Jobe on Thursday referred to areas that were “consistently under attack”, while the January publication used the narrower classification of “frontline” LGAs.

More recently, the government has divided the state’s 34 LGAs into three security categories.

Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs Nasiru Mu’azu Danmusa said eight LGAs were classified as frontline, 11 as vulnerable and 15 as crisis-free, according to a statement reported by The Nation on 11 August.

Mr Danmusa said the classification was intended to guide the deployment of security personnel, equipment and other resources according to the threat level in each area.

The publicly reported statement did not, however, provide incident-level data or the thresholds used to determine when an LGA moves from frontline to vulnerable or crisis-free status.

Attacks persist despite claimed gains

The government’s claim of significantly improved security comes amid continuing attacks in parts of the state, including Bakori Local Government Area.

On 3 August, PREMIUM TIMES reported that armed attackers killed one resident, injured at least seven and abducted 32 others in Shuwaki community.

One of the abducted women was later released because she was ill and unable to continue the journey, leaving 31 captives at the time the report was published.

The attack followed raids on several neighbouring communities from late July and came days after a major confrontation between security personnel and armed groups in Guga.

Aminu Magaji, a former chairman of Bakori Local Government Area, in the aftermath of the Shuwaki attack said that repeated livestock theft had deprived some farmers of cattle traditionally used for cultivation, forcing residents to work their farms manually.

On Thursday, Daily Trust reported another attack on Unguwar Aminu community in Kandarawa Ward of Bakori, in which two residents were reportedly killed, four others shot and six abducted.

PREMIUM TIMES has not independently verified the casualty and abduction figures in the Unguwar Aminu attack.

Kinetic and non-kinetic measures

Mr Jobe attributed the government’s claimed security gains to collaboration with conventional security agencies, community-based security arrangements and non-kinetic interventions.

He said the government had provided free medical care to victims of bandit attacks and invested in agriculture, mechanisation, improved seeds, fertiliser and agricultural extension services.

He said the administration had recruited and trained 772 agricultural extension workers and equipped them to assist farmers.

The figure is consistent with Mr Radda’s 2025 budget presentation in November 2024, when he said the number of extension workers had increased from 78 in 2023 to 772.

The same budget presentation separately recorded the purchase of 722 motorcycle knapsack sprayers for 722 extension workers.

SSS promises communiqué

Katsina State Director of the SSS Alhassan Iliasu said the conference would enable intelligence agencies across the North-west to review security challenges and develop coordinated counter-terrorism strategies.

READ ALSO: Bandits kill two, abduct six in Katsina

He said deliberations at the meeting would culminate in a communiqué that would provide a roadmap for security agencies combating banditry, kidnapping and related crimes across the region, Channels Television reported.

The Chairman of the North-west Forum of State Directors of Security, Hussaini Abubakar, also said the conference was intended to strengthen cooperation and allow security chiefs to exchange experiences.

The Commander of the Nigerian Army’s 17 Brigade in Katsina, Ishaya Ibrahim, stressed the importance of actionable intelligence, intelligence sharing and operational coordination, according to Vanguard.

Katsina State Commissioner of Police Aliyu Fage, similarly said the police and SSS routinely exchanged intelligence and security information to improve their response to threats.