Pascal Oparada
In what could be described as a scene from the movies, a father had narrated on BBC Hausa radio programme how bandits in Zamfara State now demand that parents loan them their daughters for a specified period of time or else they would be killed.
According to Bulama Bukarti, a listener of the programme, when the bandits raid villages, they always ask parents who have grown up or adolescent daughters to lend them their daughters or they would be killed. Buakrti said the parents always oblige.
In a particular incident, a family lent their daughter to the criminals for ten days in which period they raped the teenager.
On a weekly program of BBC Hausa that I was on last night, a father told a story that kept me awake. Bandits in Zamfara asked his brother to “lend” them his daughter for a week or they destroy them. They took her & raped her in their den for the period. His isn’t the only family.
— Bulama Bukarti (@bulamabukarti) December 5, 2020
“On a weekly program of BBC Hausa that I was on last night, a father told a story that kept me awake. Bandits in Zamfara asked his brother to “lend” them his daughter for a week or they will destroy them. They took her and raped her in their den for the period. His isn’t the only family,” Bukhari said.
According to him, families can longer conduct weddings unless they pay ‘marriage fees’ to the bandits.
He said families in their villages can’t conduct any wedding ceremony until they seek permission from bandits and pay them “marriage fees”. This is happening in a state where the Governor is taking photos with bandits, paying them and quarreling with soldiers to not attack them.
— Bulama Bukarti (@bulamabukarti) December 5, 2020
“…families in their villages can’t conduct any wedding ceremony until they seek permission from bandits and pay them “marriage fees”. This is happening in a state where the Governor is taking photos with bandits, paying them and quarrelling with soldiers to not attack them.,” Bukari said on Twitter.
His post has elicited varying reactions on the social media site with many saying the north is being hypocritical with insecurity in the region.
Activist, Aisha Yesufu lamented the lack of attention being given to insecurity in the region.
“The hypocrisy in the North will consume the North and sadly the whole Nation. When the revolution erupts, it will be deadly. There will be no religious threat that will work because people are already in hell.
Let’s keep saying Buhari is President & Protest is haram,” she said.
Others corroborated Bukarti’s statement. According to them, residents do not only pay ‘marriage fees’ but also ‘harvesting fees’.
“It’s not only “marriage fees” still there is “harvesting fees” because you can’t harvest without their permission. And what will amaze you Bukhari is sometimes they tend to say in every 20 bags of maize or millet 5 bags is there dividend,” one Mustapha Abubakar said.
Rabiu Jekeda who said he’s from Zamfara said Bukarti’s story is true. He lamented that they can’t sleep with their two eyes closed.
