Nasarawa State has been in the spotlight for various forms of crimes and criminalities. Over the past months, the state has recorded gunmen invasion, banditry, killings, kidnapping, rape, herdsmen/farmers clashes, and armed robbery, among different forms of criminality.
According to Governor Sule, the incidences of banditry and kidnapping have increased in about eight out of the 13 Local Government Areas of the state.
The governor, since inception, has made tackling insecurity in the state a top priority. As the state evolves a strategy to fight insecurity, another pattern of criminality resurfaces.
Not fewer than 31 persons were kidnapped in different locations across the state and were released on ransom, between 2023 and 2024. Sadly, the majority of the kidnapped persons were low-profile individuals whose cases were not brought to the media space.
To compound the security situation in the state early this year, the National Executive of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, a Fulani socio-cultural association led by its national president, Abdullahi Bello Badejo launched a voluntary ethnic security outfit in Nasarawa State. The personnel of the security outfit were made up of only Fulani men, to help tackle incessant cases of kidnapping and banditry in Nasarawa.
Badejo launched the security outfit in Lafia with 1,144 personnel, and declared war on kidnappers and other criminalities in the state, vowing to make the state very hot for them.
A week after the launch of the security outfits, operatives of the Department of State Services arrested Bodejo, over the creation of an ethnic vigilante group in Nasarawa State.
Sources said Badejo was arrested over fears that the creation of the nomad vigilant group could escalate the security challenges in the state and across the country, noting further that the group was not registered with the DSS, the police, or any other security agency, hence it was not recognized by the federal government.
The government of Nasarawa State equally denied any knowledge or approval of the formation of ethnic security outfits.
