In Kebbi State, residents are raising the alarm: escalating abductions and banditry have made farming, once their livelihood, nearly impossible.
People in farming communities say the fear of kidnapping has become so intense that many are no longer comfortable planting or tending their fields. As one villager put it, “we can no longer go to farm” a sentiment that reflects the broader, deepening crisis of insecurity in the region.
This comes amid a recent high-profile abduction: 25 schoolgirls were kidnapped from the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Danko-Wasagu LGA. Authorities say the attackers arrived before dawn on motorcycles, engaged in a gunfight with police, killed at least one school staffer, and fled with the girls.
In the wake of the abduction, some security forces, including the army and local vigilantes, have intensified search efforts in nearby forests and along escape routes. A senator from Kebbi South, Garba Maidoki, claimed that intelligence suggests the girls are still within the state, raising cautious hopes that they could be rescued “in the next one or two days.”
For local farmers, though, the attack has become another piece in a long cycle of violence. According to residents interviewed by Daily Post Nigeria, recurring abductions have paralyzed farm activity. The impact isn’t just personal, it’s economic. When farmers abandon their fields, food production suffers, and communities feel the ripple effects.
The problem is not new. In a related incident just weeks prior, troops in Kebbi rescued 30 abducted farmers from a bandit gang in Tudun Wada Bena, Danko-Wasagu LGA. That raid underscores the scale and persistence of bandit activity in rural Kebbi.
Civil society voices have also stepped up. Northern women’s groups, through the coalition Voices for Inclusion and Equity for Women (VIEW), have urged the federal government to treat the Kebbi abduction crisis as a national emergency. Meanwhile, religious leaders have added their condemnation: the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) called the raid “heartless” and said it reflects a failure in security coordination in the region.
The insecurity in Kebbi is part of a broader pattern in northwest Nigeria, where armed gangs (often referred to as “bandits”) carry out kidnappings for ransom, carry out mass attacks, and disrupt rural life.
For the people of Kebbi, the fear is not just for children kidnapped at school, but for daily survival. “If we cannot go to our farms,” one farmer said, “then how will we feed our families?”
