Did Oyo Bandits Really Talk About Shariah? -By Abdussamad Umar Jibia

On May 15, 2026, 39 school children and seven teachers were abducted from three schools in Oyo state. Since then, the incidence has been the major headline in Nigerian traditional and social media.

This is not the first time criminals would storm a school and abduct school children and teachers. The first known mass abduction of school children in Nigeria occurred in 2014 at Government Girls Secondary School Chibok in Borno state. It was followed by a series of similar abductions in different states of the North. This is the first time such mass abduction has taken place in Southern Nigeria. Hence, the storm.

One information that has been circulated is that the bandits have demanded for the implementation of Shariah in the South West as a condition for the release of the children and their teachers. This is something I have found difficult to believe to believe from my knowledge of bandits and their operations.

First and foremost, we have to make a distinction between the different types of criminals who operate in Northern Nigeria. Boko Haram, which originated from the North East and later integrated with ISWAP (Islamic State of West Africa) claims to be fighting for Islam and has religion as part of its agenda just like do similar groups around the globe. Boko Haram/ISWAP mainly operates in the North East.

However, the bandits as they are popularly called, who originated from the North West and are mainly of Fulani extraction have nothing to do with religion, do not advocate it and in fact, most of them do not pray five times a day like Muslims do and cannot even recite the opening chapter of the Qurán. This group, sometimes referred to as Fulani herdsmen to avoid ethnic profiling, is the group said to have abducted the Oyo pupils.

The bandits are not a single group. The different groups each with its leader live in the forest and are believed to have their informants in townships. The informants dig detailed information about their potential victims before they strike. This is well known to anyone living in Northern Nigeria.

As a person who hails from the western part of Katsina state, we are some of the earliest victims of banditry. For example, in August 2016 my maternal uncle who is the Imam of his village was killed by bandits who shot him 11 times, injured his 10 year old son and raped two of his daughters. In addition, more than 300 cows were rustled from the village. We reported the matter to the Katsina State Commissioner of Police but nothing was done about it.

Two months later, Government announced amnesty for all the bandits in Katsina state. The suspects were brought to the village with Police escort and the villagers were told they must forgive them because they were “their brothers”. In all of these, religion was not mentioned. It was never an issue because the bandits were not a religious people.

After the amnesty, banditry business continued as usual until 2019 when the Federal Government under Buhari asked all the state Governors to enter into a peace agreement with the bandits in their states. The vividly uncomfortable Katsina state Governor held meetings with bandit leaders across the affected local governments of Sabuwa, Dandume, Faskari, Safana, Dan Musa, Kankara, Batsari and Jibia. The meetings took place in the forest under heavy security and before press cameras. The military support in the escort of the Governor was enough to crush all the bandits. Ironically, the Government decided to beg them. The videos of some of the meetings are still available on the internet.

It is noteworthy that all the bandit leaders who attended those meetings were Fulani, they were all Nigerians and none of them was religious. No one talked about religion and the only complaint from most of them was that some of their gang members were in police custody and should be released.

It is also not a Hausa versus Fulani affair. Some of the early victims of banditry were Fulani who refused to join banditry and refused to give their support to it. There are still many rural Fulani communities in the North West who are against banditry and do not harbour bandits.

Now, at what point did banditry begin to be associated with religion? Different possibilities.

The Zionist entity
One of the biggest mistakes made by the Ibrahim Babangida administration was normalizing diplomatic ties with the Zionist occupation called Israel. Zionists are believed to be behind some of the crimes committed in the Northern part of Nigeria.

The former deputy speaker of the House of Reps Alhaji Abdullahi Wase alleged that 300 hundred youths from the Christian majority state of Plateau were given training in Israel and that four containers of arms were brought in by an Israeli security company to a politician’s house in Plateau state.

Alhaji Abdullahi Wase called for an investigation by Government. The investigation was not conducted. It is thus not out of place if Zionists, through some hirelings, introduced religion into the discussion of banditry in order to cause further internal crisis or use their American boys to attack innocent Muslims in Nigeria.

Sheikh Ahmad Gummi

The involvement of Dr. Ahmad Gummi with bandits leaves more questions than answers. Gummi is an Islamic scholar who sees things from the Islamic perspective. Did he ever tell the bandits to change their focus to religion instead of continuing to remain common criminals? I have no answer to this question. Only the Government and Sheikh Gummi have.

Elements in Tinubu administration
A young Islamic scholar, Sheikh Munir Koza once claimed that he was among the many young influential Islamic scholars invited for a meeting by some defence officials of Tinubu government not long after this Government took over. With financial reward, they were requested to propagate three things in their preachings.

One. That banditry by Fulani groups is justified because Fulani have been subjected to neglect and injustice over a long period.

Two. Call on Government to dialogue with bandits and give them political appointments.

Three. That the Governors of Zamfara and Katsina are wrong to have set up security outfits to confront bandits.

According to Sheikh Koza, he was the only person who expressed his disagreement at the first meeting and was thus not invited to subsequent meetings.

If the claim by Sheikh Koza is true, it means there are bandits’ sympathizers in Tinubu Government. One would ask, is Mr. President not aware? Did he appoint them because he believes insecurity is a Northern Nigerian affair and he has thus appointed Northerners to go and eat themselves? Now, that it has spread to the South, is he ready to make amendments?

Or, who actually introduced religion into it?

Professor Abdussamad Umar Jibia
Department of Mechatronics Engineering
Bayero University Kano
Nigeria