Notorious Bandit, Dogo takes over eight Niger communities

By Sola Omoniyi, Lagos

About eight communities in the Shriroro local government area of Niger state have reportedly surrendered themselves to the leadership of notorious bandits warlord Dogo Gide and have decided to pledge their loyalty and allegiance to the group.

According to reports, this is barely two weeks after the bandits’ group led by Dogo Gide took credit for shooting down a Military Helicopter on an evacuation mission in Kusasu Village in Shriroro local government area.

The communities that have allegedly pledged loyalty to Gide and his group are Kusasu, Kwaki, Chukuba, Gulana, Apai, Nakuna, Yanka, and Kurebe, where the bandits’ warlord had continued to operate with impunity for the past years.

It was gathered that over 1,000 inhabitants of these communities last week contributed food stuff to join the warlord to celebrate the successful shooting down of the helicopter without any major reaction from the authority and have equally submitted themselves to his leadership, adding that “they now address him as Governor.”

Sources disclosed that the people’s decision to accept Gide as their leader was informed by the fact that despite the killing of the soldiers and the shooting down of the helicopter by the bandits, the Nigerian authority had not taken any major step towards the Bandits.

According to the source, the only way for the communities is to submit themselves to the group “because it appears that there is nothing anybody can do about the situation.”

“As I speak with you, the people are planning to give a title and made Dogo Gede their king in these communities. At the moment, they refer to him as their governor because since the Bandits have been operating in the area for the past eight years and killing the people, no governor of the state or any political leader has visited them.

“These people have lost hope in their leaders, and they believed that nobody can rescue them from the hands of these Bandits and restore peace in these communities. So you don’t blame them for pledging loyalty and allegiance to the warlord and his group if that is the only way they can have peace and embark on their farm business”, the source added.

It was reported that some members of these communities have volunteered to serve as intermediaries between the people and the Dogo Gide-led group for ease of communication and harmonious relationship.

According to a source in the Nakuna community, one Mallam Yohanna, who was sometimes arrested by special hunters operating in the area on suspicious of being an informant to the Bandits, is now serving as the intermediary between the Bandits and his community, while in Apai community, a man popularly refers to as Alhaji is the intermediary between the Bandits and his community.