43 herders killed in renewed vigilante attacks in Kebbi, Niger States

By: Zagazola Makama

At least 43 Fulani herders have been killed in a series of coordinated attacks by suspected vigilante groups across parts of Kebbi and Niger States, according to community sources and local leaders.

Zagazola Makama report that the attacks, which occurred between Oct. 24 and 26, affected several rural settlements in Argungu, Arewa, and Bunza Local Government Areas of Kebbi State, where armed vigilantes reportedly invaded Fulani communities, killing dozens and setting houses ablaze.

In Lailaba District of Argungu LGA, particularly at Maini Fulani settlement, and in Bui and Tilli districts of Arewa and Bunza LGAs respectively, at least 37 people were killed, several others injured, and more than 200 houses destroyed. Many residents, including women and children, were displaced, while some persons remain missing.

Eyewitnesses said the attacks were carried out by groups of vigilantes who stormed the herders’ camps, shooting sporadically and torching homes. The violence was said to have begun on Oct. 24 in Argungu, followed by another on Oct. 25 in Bunza, and a third on Oct. 26 in Bui.

Community members alleged that the assailants came from neighbouring villages in Arewa LGA, including Yeldu District, while others involved in the Bui incident were said to have come from Tunga Bature, Tunga Tsoho, Bui, Sangela, and Danmairago villages.

Authorities in Kebbi have since visited the affected areas, promising to investigate the incident and bring those responsible to justice. The state government also assured displaced families of support and called for calm to prevent further escalation.

Meanwhile, similar violence was reported in Edati Local Government Area of Niger State, where six Fulani herders were killed and more than 60 houses burnt on Sept. 21 in Ejjin, Runji, Majina, and Ginshi villages.

Such acts of reprisal and mob justice could worsen communal relations and heighten insecurity across the affected states.

Reacting to the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has condemned the attacks in a statement issued in Abuja by the association’s National Secretary, Bello Aliyu Gotomo.

The group described the killings and destruction of herders’ settlements as unjustified and inhumane, calling for the arrest and prosecution of all those involved.

MACBAN lamented that herders in the region were already contending with the activities of armed bandits locally referred to as Lakurawa, who extort illegal taxes, seize livestock, and terrorise rural dwellers.

“Now, in addition to these threats, peaceful herders are being attacked by vigilantes acting outside the law. Allowing people to take the law into their hands will only worsen insecurity across the state,” the statement warned.

The group further expressed grief over a similar incident in Niger State, where six Fulani herders were killed and more than 60 houses burnt by vigilantes on Sept. 21, 2025, in the communities of Ejjin, Runji, Majina, and Ginshi in Edati Local Government Area.

MACBAN said the violence followed a misunderstanding between a farmer and a herder, after which some vigilantes mobilised and attacked herders’ homes while the herder involved was already in police custody.

The association commended the Governor of Niger State for his prompt intervention, which prevented the crisis from escalating further.

MACBAN, however, called on the Federal, State, and Local Governments to urgently address the rising wave of insecurity affecting rural communities across the country, noting that the situation had severely impacted livestock rearing and farming activities.

“The security crisis in rural areas demands immediate and coordinated attention from all tiers of government to protect lives and livelihoods,” Gotomo stated.

43 herders killed in renewed vigilante attacks in Kebbi, Niger States

Dozens killed as Boko Haram, ISWAP resume deadly clashes as reconciliation collapses in Lake Chad

By: Zagazola Makama

Fresh clashes have erupted between fighters of Boko Haram’s Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS) faction and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), following the collapse of a short-lived truce between the rival terrorist groups.

Zagazola report that the long-standing rivalry between the Bakoura-led Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS) faction and ISWAP has degenerated into another violent phase with dozens of ISWAP fighters killed.

Sources said that the latest confrontation was part of an ongoing cycle of reprisal attacks that began after the killing of Abu Abass, a senior JAS tax collector, by ISWAP fighters in September. The discovery of the cause of his death reportedly infuriated Bakoura’s camp, prompting multiple revenge raids on ISWAP-held territories.

Sources told Zagazola Makama that the attack occurred on Saturday, Oct. 26, when a faction loyal to Mohammed Hassan, a top commander under the Bakoura-led JAS group, launched a coordinated attack on an ISWAP stronghold at Mangari, in the central area of the Lake Chad region, Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno State.

The assault, carried out with multiple watercraft between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., resulted in the death of scores of ISWAP fighters and the capture of weapons and supplies. The attackers were said to have advanced from Toumbun Gini towards Abujan Ruwa, overpowering ISWAP’s defensive lines in the area.

Field assessment suggests that the JAS faction overpowered ISWAP during the offensive, seizing weapons and other valuable items. The exact number of casualties remains unclear due to the remoteness of the area and the ongoing movement of rival units across the Lake Chad islands as fatalities may be more.

According to sources, the renewed hostilities marks a significant breakdown in the fragile non-aggression pact earlier reached between the two extremist movements.

Earlier, on Oct. 8, JAS forces loyal to Bakoura launched a series of coordinated assaults on ISWAP elements in Toumbun Mairi, inflicting heavy losses. The Oct. 26 engagement at Mangari is believed to be a continuation of those retaliatory strikes.

“The Bakoura-led faction has vowed to avenge the killing of its members and commanders,” source told Zagazola. “They accuse ISWAP of betrayal after both sides had agreed to suspend hostilities.”sources said.

On the other hand, ISWAP units are currently converging for retaliatory operations. Commanders have been directed to coordinate major offensives and eliminate all Boko Haram members.

The rivalry between JAS and ISWAP has always been brutal. Whenever one faction suffers losses, it retaliates immediately, often spilling into civilian areas who sometimes get killed for trespassing in any of the acclaimed territories of the terrorists

Since the death of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in 2021, the insurgency has splintered into competing factions, with intermittent periods of uneasy truce punctuated by bloody reprisals.

The Lake Chad Basin straddling Nigeria, Chad, Niger, and Cameroon remains the epicentre of jihadist activity in the region, with both Boko Haram and ISWAP competing for control of key smuggling routes, fishing zones, and taxation points. The renewed infighting could further weaken the operational capacity of both groups but may also trigger intensified attacks against civilian targets as each side seeks to assert dominance.

Meanwhile, Army troops of Operation Hadin Kai have been placed on heightened alert, with operations ongoing to decimate the terrorists in their enclaves, prevent infiltration or coordinated assaults on military locations and civilian settlements in the North East.

Zagazola Makama is a Counter Insurgency Expert and Security Analyst in the Lake Chad region
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Dozens killed as Boko Haram, ISWAP resume deadly clashes as reconciliation collapses in Lake Chad

If Not for Fear of Boko Haram’s Bombs Jonathan Would Have Fully Removed Fuel Subsidy – Sanusi

By: Michael Mike

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II has disclosed that the decision to suspend the fuel subsidy removal by President Goodluck Jonathan was because of the fear of Boko Haram’s suicide attacks on protesters and never because of the protest in itself.

Speaking at the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference, themed: “Better Leader for a Better Nigeria,” the Emir, who was at the time the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the prime promoter of fuel subsidy removal, said the right definition for what was happening with what was termed fuel subsidy was a hedge with the government paying to keep the price at a point at all time.

He said: “It was not a subsidy, it was a hedge. You see, a subsidy by definition, the government says I’ll pay X percent of the price. That’s the subsidy. I’ll pay 20 percent of the price. Whatever it is. Price goes up, you pay more, I pay more. Price goes down, you pay less, I pay less. What we had in this country is what in risk management you call a naked hedge. The worst possible derivative you can have.

“The government said to Nigerians, 200 million Nigerians, you will not pay more than X amount per litre. On petrol, no matter what the price of petrol is. So all price goes up from $40 to $140, the federal government pays the difference.

“Exchange rate moves from $155 to $300, the government pays the difference. Interest rates move from 5 percent to 15 percent, the government pays. Remember the price of petrol and what the calculations include, the cost of crude, the cost of the by-product, the cost of transportation, even interest rates, demurrage.

“If you look at the template, all of those amounts were being absorbed. The federal government was saying I have an unlimited pocket. So move from a point where we were using revenues to pay subsidies to where we had to borrow money to pay subsidies, to where we had to borrow money to pay interest on the borrowed money, we had become bankrupt.

“Anyone who takes a naked hedge ends up being bankrupted, especially with a commodity where you don’t control the price. So this was the point in 2012. Now, if Nigerians had allowed the Jonathan government to remove the subsidy in 2011, that would have been pain.

But that pain would have been a very, very tiny fraction of what we are facing today. This is the cost of today. At that time, we worked out the numbers in the Central Bank, and I stood up and put my credit in front of the line and said, remove the subsidy today, inflation moves up from 11 percent to 13 percent. I will bring it down a bit later. Oh, that’s about 30-something percent inflation. That was where we were.”

On Jonathan’s decision to suspend the planned subsidy removal, the Emit said: “And you know, the only reason the government compromised at that time, maybe you should know this, the only reason the government compromised and did 50% not 100% was Boko Haram. Because there were thousands of Nigerians on the streets in Lagos and Kano and Kaduna and all that. We had suicide bombers in the country.

“And it was like, if one day one of these suicide bombers goes to these Nigerians and explodes the bomb, and you have 200 corpses, it will no longer be about subsidy. So I got to give President Jonathan the credit. He was determined to do it.

He noted that Nigeria is a classless society, explaining that: “If you take the people you call leaders, go to the Senate, go to the House of Reps, you can go and pick 109 Nigerians at random, without election.
Put them in the Senate chambers and the results may not be different from what you’re getting out. Because the truth is, you have highly educated people in government, but they live like illiterates. They forget their education behind.

“When you talk about praise singing, why would a man who is an educated man, an accomplished man, why would he be a praise singer to anyone? Why would he not be able to face his boss and say, for that, we’re not doing very good, this is the truth? And how would a person in government not have the confidence to listen to those around him and take criticism?

“You have got people who are supposed to be the representatives of the values of society. By the time you become a governor, honestly, you should be beyond looking for money. You have been given an opportunity to take care of the lives of millions of people, to educate children, to save lives, to provide healthcare, to build infrastructure, while all you are thinking of is a house? I mean, are you that cheap?

“And you see them, and I remember the day they leave office, after a few years, they die, and the children are fighting over the money. Then they get the money, and then they go on drugs, and everything is wasted. That money would have been better spent, educating millions of young people, and save their lives. So if we really want to fix this country, we need to have a class. The ruling class needs to have values. Values beyond the market.”

He decried that many leaders are surrounded by sycophants, adding that: “We need to begin to ask as leaders who do we surround ourselves with?”

On his part, Mr. Atedo Peterside, a Nigerian entrepreneur, investment banker and economist, the founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank and Anap Foundation, lamented that many politicians do not come to serve their people but rather to steal.

He decried that the cause of underdevelopment in Africa is that leadership is mainly about state capture and corruption.

He alleged that. “They came to capture what belongs to everybody, that’s for the common good, for themselves and their narrow elites. Until we solve that problem, we will remain in this field.“

He noted that it is not about the beauty or otherwise of reforms, stating that the difference is the sincerity. “Did the leader come to serve or did he come to steal?”

He lamented that: “People take positions not based on the truth, but based on what personal agenda they are pursuing. So I’ll be the first one to give credit to this government for removing the fuel subsidy, which some of us started campaigning for from the very first economic summit over 30 years ago.

“But the same president must take the blame for sabotaging the efforts to remove the fuel subsidy in the past, in 2012. The speeches are there. But the best time to have planted the tree was 25 years ago.

“The second best time is now, so let’s focus on the now. The important thing is that the government has done the correct thing in terms of removing an unaffordable subsidy. The same government has done the correct thing, which has been done before, to give us what I would consider to be largely market-determined exchange rates, which gives you some exchange rates stability.

“So you ask me, what would I have done differently? That question shows that anybody with the right brain on his head would have done those two things. But guess what? How long does it take to do those things?“

He said: “We had market-determined exchange rates largely. So that’s a one-day action. You bite the bullet on the first day.

“What differentiates you thereafter is your subsequent actions. So those measures improve fiscal balance. They give all three tiers of government so much more revenue.

“And that’s where the problem starts. What is the point of giving the thief more revenue if he’s only going to steal it? So across all the local governments of Nigeria, across every state government, and at the federal level, the real test is what is being done with that revenue in their hands. Is that revenue supposed to be used to fuel 400 cars to escort the president to the airport and cut off the revenue in the process? Is that what you did it for? Let me tell you what the correct thing was.

“The real difficulty, the real action, the real result was to help eliminate poverty, was to get the economy functioning. As soon as we did those two things, what could be done, each of them, when you take a day, an announcement, is your subsequent actions. When the economic summit turned 25 years, I was in this same room.

“I recommended that the government measure a mutual subsidy. I also said that as soon as we do it, the following day, even the day before, start distributing cash to the poorest Nigerians. They all have names.”

The Former Director General Nigerian Stock Exchange and Convener of the meeting, Arunma Otey: “Nigeria, is a great example of what the possibilities are. When all hands are on deck.”

Otey who also used the occasion to present her book: “All Hands on Decj: Unleash Prosperity through World-Class Capital Markets,” said: “We do think that we need to continue to focus on the openness of finance, share in some of the very inclusive approaches. We need to build a bigger pie, and we need to make sure that that pie is available to our creators.”

She noted that: “One of the things that will help our nation is a focus on reasonably priced long-term patient capital. And so part of what I advocate for is creating the environment that allows us to have long-term patient capital that is available to businesses, that is available to government. And when I say available to government, the current government, previous governments have invested in infrastructure.

She added that: “We need to invest in infrastructure in this nation. I was looking at data as I was thinking about this conference, and China, over the years, invested 24% of its GDP in infrastructure. At best we do 4-5%. If we want to reach the infrastructure deficit in our nation, we would have to do at least 12%. So there’s some foundational things we will do.”

Otey said: “We need to scale. We need to do much more. And we need to raise money, so that small businesses can do better, so that the government can do more.

And we as individuals need to invest in our nation. And that’s why the time is now hands on deck.”

She asked: “Why aren’t we exploiting those 40 minerals in commercial quantities? Why are minerals still in the exclusive list of the federal government? Why can’t we have it decentralised, so that every state can produce the minerals in their own state? Why are we decentralising a nation of 230 million people?”

On his part, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of The Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, said: “Today we are talking about leadership. And I’ll just briefly say that, yes, Africa, with all its human resources, and of course, that is the most important resource that Africa has now. We are going to be the world’s workforce.
Africa will provide by 2030 or so 25% of the world’s workforce. We are a young continent compared to the aging continents of Asia, aging continents of Europe. So we have to prepare ourselves for that historic role.

“In Nigeria, leadership changed in 2023. And the under president, Bola Ahmed, changed for the better. If you look at the record, if you look at the statistics, if you look at the progress that has been made since 2023.

“However, the statistics, the improved growth rates, the stable exchange rates, the lowering inflation, those are just one side of the story. And the most important aspect is the human side, the effect on people’s daily experience, the cost of food, the cost of transport, how they are living their lives. And it is to that that I think rather than focusing on the various statistics, what I will say is that there is an attempt to ensure that the pains of reform have immediately been alleviated.”

He added that: “And that’s why there is in place a transparent, accountable, and robust system providing direct payments, in the first instance, to a total of 15 million households. And you know, in the holding area, before we joined this gathering, there were comments that in their villages, in their towns, they have not had reports of anybody receiving those payments. So immediately, we called for the data, and shortly we will give them the data of the people that have received first, second, and third payments directly.”

If Not for Fear of Boko Haram’s Bombs Jonathan Would Have Fully Removed Fuel Subsidy – Sanusi