According to a report from BBC Hausa on Thursday, farmers in Zamfara are charged ‘harvest fees’ before they are allowed access to their farms.
Insecurity is escalating in northwest Nigeria’s Zamfara state, with daily killings and kidnappings by armed bandits leaving villagers in constant fear of attack.
Thousands of people have been displaced by a conflict which began in 2012 as a result of clashes between farmers and herders.
The fees currently being paid per village ranges from N300,000 – N900,000 according to the sources who spoke with the BBC Hausa Service.
The farmers are denied access to their farms if they do not pay these harvest fees.
Zamfara state is one of the North-west states that are battling terrorism and banditry,
Recall that NewsWireNGR reported that 26 girls were kidnapped in a village in Zamfara, at the same period, at least, 20 persons were killed by gunmen in Tungar Kwana village in Talata Mafara local government area of Zamfara State, residents and police said.
On November 9, convoy of Zamfara Commissioner for Security and Home Affairs, Alhaji Abubakar Dauran, was caught in a crossfire between two warring bandit groups.
On October 7, chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Sani Dangwaggo was kidnapped.
Repentant bandits in the state were being offered two cows for every AK-47 they surrender in July of 2020.
It is an attempt to encourage them to give up a life of crime and live a normal life as responsible citizens, Zamfara Governor Bello Matawalle had said.
Motorcycle-riding armed bandits have been terrorising the state.
Cows are valued by the Fulani herder community who have been accused of being behind a wave of attacks.
However, members of the community have repeatedly rejected the allegations saying that they too were victims.
An average cow in northern Nigeria costs about 100,000 naira ($260; £200) while an AK-47 on the black market could cost as much as 500,000 naira ($1,200; £950), the BBC’s Mansur Abubakar reports.
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