The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-West Africa) and Media Trust Limited, owners of Daily Trust Newspapers and Trust TV will on Friday March 4, 2022, organize a special documentary screening
and panel discussion on ‘Nigeria’s Banditry-The Inside Story.’
According to Idayat Hassan (Director, CDD) and Naziru Mikailu (Editor-in-Chief, Daily Trust Newspaper), “this documentary traces the root of the communal tensions and systemic inadequacies which led to the armed conflict that is setting the stage for another grand humanitarian crisis in the country.
“It presents insight into the intersection of injustice, ethnicity, and bad governance as drivers of the conflict. It also aggregates voices of experts and key actors towards finding solution.”
The special documentary and panel discussion “is part of CDD’s work under the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO)
Strengthening the Delivery of Peace and Security (SDPS) project. The event will bring together key peace and security stakeholders working in the region and other relevant sectors to a round table discussion on the
emerging trends from the documentary.”
The panel of discussants include Senator Saidu Dansadau who represented Zamfara Central at the Nigerian Senate between 1999 and 2007 and hails from Dansadau community, one of the first areas affected by the violence. In 2019, he was appointed by the Zamfara State Government into a panel to probe the bandits’ attacks.
It also include Abdulaziz Abdulaziz who has reported from and about northern Nigeria in the last 15 years. Before joining Daily Trust as Deputy General Editor, he served as the Bureau Chief of LEADERSHIP Newspapers in Kano, and subsequently worked at the Blueprint and PREMIUM TIMES newspapers. He has covered the raging banditry with rare access to the bandits’ kingpins and other actors in the conflicts. Abdulaziz has won prizes for investigative journalism.
The other discussant is Dr Murtala Ahmed Rufa’i of the Department of History, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, and is presently on sabbatical with the CDD. He has been researching banditry for over a decade and has conducted studies in north western Nigeria for organizations such as ECOWAS, Search for Common Ground and the United States Institute of Peace.