The Insecurity Triad (II): Banditry — The Rural Siege and the Weaponisation of the Harvest

Mar 29, 2026 | Max Amuchie
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There is a different kind of silence in the countryside. It is not the anxious quiet of a ringing phone, but the heavy stillness of abandoned farmlands. Crops rot where they were planted. Footpaths disappear into overgrowth. Entire communities live with one eye open—not listening for a call, but for the distant echo of motorcycles approaching.

Brigadier-General Lawal Bature Mohammed (rtd), former Commander of the Zamfara Community Protection Guards (CPG), was meant to be part of the solution. Instead, he became part of the story. Popularly known as Dan Gusau, he was shot by bandits in a brutal attack last year, sustaining severe bullet wounds that required evacuation to Egypt for advanced medical treatment. He would later succumb to those injuries.