Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State has disclosed how he rejected the idea of negotiating with bandits and instead chose to support victims of insurgency, restoring trust and rebuilding shattered communities.
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The governor who disclosed this in an interview aired on Arise Television on Thursday said instead of compensating the perpetrators, he prioritized the victims.
“When I started, a lot of people were criticizing me saying, ‘you are trying to pay bandits,’” he said. “But I told them, a man who fought for justice, a man who fought for the freedom of the less privileged and downtrodden, cannot sit down with bandits and pay them.
“They were surprised only two weeks ago when I came up with my own programme where I gave houses to victims of insurgency. I have not given a naira to the bandits, but I have built houses for the victims of banditry in Kaduna.”
The governor explained that his approach involved what he described as “kinetic and non-kinetic” methods, all within legal limits.
“As a governor, you have a limitation. I know it very well because I championed the creation of State Police so that we can address it,” he said.
He also recalled that while serving as a senator, he advocated for state policing despite fears it could be abused by governors. “That’s a lazy argument,” he said. “When I was moving that demand, I was in the Senate, not a governor.”
Governor Sani said real progress began when he engaged local communities directly, especially in Birnin Gwari, a place once notorious for being inaccessible.
“There was a trust deficit between communities and the so-called bandits,” he admitted.
He said government cannot force reconciliation because it must be community-owned initiative.
During his visit to Birnin Gwari, the Emir shocked him by revealing that most of the bandits were born under his watch.
“I said, ‘So you know them but they are killing our people?’” the governor recalled. “Even at that, I told them I would have nothing to do with the process until they released at least 200 captives and they did.”
The bandits’ demands were surprisingly simple reopening of the grains and cattle markets, closed for over a decade. “But I didn’t act alone. I worked closely with the Office of the National Security Adviser,” he said.
Today, Sani said, the situation has drastically improved. “We now have at least 25 to 30 trucks of cows leaving Birnin Gwari for Lagos daily. Grains markets are open, and our people are doing business worth billions of naira.”
He also partnered with Qatar Charity to support the victims, saying he engaged them because it’s part of their global humanitarian mandate.
“Before I became governor, 162 schools and 192 PHCs were shut due to insecurity,” Sani said. “Today, the Kaduna–Birnin Gwari highway is safe, and farmers have returned to their farmlands.”
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