Terrorists allegedly impose N2m ‘fine’ on Zamfara communities to allow elections

Terrorists have allegedly imposed a total sum of N2million on residents of Yan-buki, Kadamutsa and Dada communities under the Zurmi local government area of Zamfara State, before they can participate in Saturday’s gubernatorial and state assembly elections.

A northern social media influencer, @AM_Saleeem, confirmed this in a tweet on Monday afternoon, adding that the terrorists imposed N200,000 on every Polling Unit.

He wrote, “Bandits have imposed N2million levy each on Yan-buki, Kadamutsa and Dada communities under Zurmi LGA, Zamfara State N200,000 for every PU, before they could conduct the gubernatorial election in the above areas. The residents confirmed.”

According to SaharaReporters, two other residents from the affected communities on Tuesday morning confirmed that the situation was true and had generated panic among their people.

An indigene of one of the affected communities who resided in Gusau, told SaharaReporters in a telephone conversation that, “It is true. I was informed during the weekend about this by my relatives in Yan-Buki. But they have started taking a step to inform the appropriate authorities on it.”

Also, a resident who simply identified himself as Aliyu from Gidan Zago, a village near the affected communities, said on Monday that terrorists had communicated with the people of Dada about what they wanted before allowing them to hold elections in the areas on Saturday.

“My people are now afraid that these people (bandits) will come to them today (Tuesday) because that has been the practice. Once they attack or give warning to a village, the nearby villages will always be the next target,” he said.

Zurmi local government area of the state is one of the most attacked areas in the state by terrorists in recent times.
In October, no fewer than ten communities in the Local Government Area were attacked by armed bandits within a week.

The names of the villages affected were given as Yanbuki, Bindin, Kadamutsa, Gidan Zago, Marmaro, Dada, Maduba, Kacha, Huhu, Dangasamu, Hushin Dusti.