Nigerian Kidnap Kingpin Reneges On Amnesty Deal

Kano, Nigeria, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Apr, 2021 ) :A Nigerian bandit chief who led the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolchildren before accepting an amnesty deal has reneged on the peace accord with authorities and returned to crime, sources told AFP.

Awwalun Daudawa commanded the abduction of more than 500 students from Government Science Secondary school in northwestern Kankara state last December before handing himself in to authorities.

His rejection of the amnesty underscores the complexity of engaging with Nigeria's criminal gangs, setting back efforts to end attacks and kidnappings plaguing the country's northwest.

Some students managed to escape the Kankara abduction while 344 were released days later after negotiations with local state officials and ransom payment.

"It was only on Monday that we realised Awwalun Daudawa had returned to his old ways when he didn't return after the expiration of the one-week period," a Zamfara state official said late on Thursday.

"We came to understand that he has joined his comrades in the forest near the border with Katsina state," he said.

Northwest and central Nigeria have been terrorised for years by heavily armed criminal gangs who raid villages, stealing cattle, kidnapping for ransom and burning homes after looting supplies.

But violence has surged as gangs also attack travellers at bogus checkpoints on the highways and more recently have targeted schools and colleges to abduct students.

Hostages are usually released after ransom payment and those whose families fail to pay are often killed by their captors.

The bandits are known to hide in camps in Rugu forest which straddles Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, and Niger states. Despite deployment of troops in Zamfara and Katsina, deadly attacks persist.

This prompted some state governments to try broker a peace deals with the bandits, offering them amnesty in exchange for surrendering their arms.

In February Daudawa along with his six comrades surrendered to Zamfara state governor Bello Matawalle in his office where he handed over weapons, saying he had renounced crime, as part of the amnesty to criminal gangs, who are known locally as bandits.