Indications have emerged that the Lakurawa terrorists group in Nigeria’s North Western states of Sokoto and Kebbi is not new.
According to a security expert, Bulama Bukarti, and a chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Prof Tukur Muhammad-Baba, the terror group has been around since 2017 or 2018.
This is contrary to what the Defence Headquarters claimed a few weeks ago that “a new terrorist group ‘Lakurawa’ had emerged in the North-Western part of Nigeria.”
Both the security expert and the Publicity Secretary of the ACF, who appeared on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today, anchored by Seun Okinbaloye and monitored by our Correspondent in Lagos, said the group has existed before now.
“The group that is called Lakurawa today has been sporadically living or camping in the northwestern part of Nigeria for over six years now. They first started illegally entering Nigeria around 2016, 2017,” Bukarti said.
“But they did not stay permanently. What they do – and that’s what they do still today – is that they move in, stay for a few months, and then they go back to the Sahel or wherever they are coming from in Niger.
”They’re not a new group, The DSS is aware of it. We thought they had been chased out but we later found out that it was a deal that they should either leave or be attacked.”
He claimed the Nigerian Army is aware of the group and the police also know about its existence.
“In 2018, they (Nigerian Army) fought the same group and pushed them back to the Niger Republic and this group has been staying; camping in northwestern Nigeria since 2016-2017,” the expert said.
Muhammad-Baba corroborated Bukarti’s comment, saying the terror group has been around for a while.
“This is not a new group. In fact, when they emerged about 2017 and 2018, I think, at least, the DSS is aware of it,” the ACF spokesman said.
“At least one journalist who came and spoke on the issue said he had a meeting with the DSS. At that time when everything went wild, we thought they had been chased out only to be told later on that it was a deal that they should either leave or they would be attacked. They decided to leave and ask for time to get rid of some of the cattle they possessed, whether it was cattle they took from people as zakat.”
