{"id":171257,"date":"2025-07-25T23:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T22:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/zamfara-town-defies-bandits-rejects-n20m-fine"},"modified":"2025-07-26T00:28:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T23:28:15","slug":"zamfara-town-defies-bandits-rejects-n20m-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/zamfara-town-defies-bandits-rejects-n20m-fine","title":{"rendered":"Zamfara Town Defies Bandits, Rejects N20m Fine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Residents of Maradun, the hometown of Nigeria\u2019s Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, are gripped by fear following a chilling threat issued by a notorious bandit leader known as Jummo.<\/p>\n<p>According to reports from the community in Maradun Local Government Area of Zamfara State, Jumbo has issued a demand for a ransom-like payment of \u20a620 million.<\/p>\n<p>If the money isn\u2019t paid, he has threatened to launch a violent assault on the town.<\/p>\n<p>In an audio message sent to locals, Jummo insisted that his men be allowed free access to local markets and permitted to move their cattle freely across the area without harassment.<\/p>\n<p>This, he claimed, would be the only way residents could continue to access their farmlands safely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is nothing stopping us from attacking Maradun,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet me tell the people of this town, I can mobilize support from over 100 other bandit leaders and together, we can take over Maradun anytime we want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He further declared that unless the \u20a620m \u201cprotection fee\u201d is paid, locals should forget about farming activities, saying his gang would block access to farmlands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur boys will begin to patrol the area. Farmers will be sent back home. No one will be allowed to cultivate their land unless the money is paid,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The threat has sparked outrage and defiance among residents.<\/p>\n<p>Many have rejected the idea of raising money to pay criminals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one is going to entertain the idea of paying money to this terrorist,\u201d said a local farmer, who spoke on the phone with our manhaja.blueprint, a local newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not going to negotiate with bandits.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He called on both the Zamfara State government and the Federal Government to take swift and decisive action by dislodging the armed groups hiding in the Bayan Ruwa area, which he said has become a safe haven for terrorists.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Residents of Maradun, the hometown of Nigeria\u2019s Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, are gripped by fear following a chilling threat issued by a notorious bandit leader known as Jummo. According to reports from the community in Maradun Local Government Area of Zamfara State, Jumbo has issued a demand for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":171256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[18163,591,254,150],"class_list":["post-171257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-bandit-tax","tag-bandits","tag-nigeria","tag-zamfara"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Zamfara Town Defies Bandits, Rejects N20m Fine - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Residents of Maradun, the hometown of Nigeria\u2019s Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, are gripped by fear foll ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/zamfara-town-defies-bandits-rejects-n20m-fine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Zamfara Town Defies Bandits, Rejects N20m Fine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Residents of Maradun, the hometown of Nigeria\u2019s Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, are gripped by fear foll ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/zamfara-town-defies-bandits-rejects-n20m-fine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-25T22:26:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-25T23:28:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1753473604.268625.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/zamfara-town-defies-bandits-rejects-n20m-fine#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/zamfara-town-defies-bandits-rejects-n20m-fine\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Zamfara Town Defies Bandits, Rejects N20m Fine\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-25T22:26:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-25T23:28:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/zamfara-town-defies-bandits-rejects-n20m-fine\"},\"wordCount\":330,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/zamfara-town-defies-bandits-rejects-n20m-fine#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1753473604.268625.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Bandit tax\",\"bandits\",\"Nigeria\",\"Zamfara\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/zamfara-town-defies-bandits-rejects-n20m-fine#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/zamfara-town-defies-bandits-rejects-n20m-fine\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/zamfara-town-defies-bandits-rejects-n20m-fine\",\"name\":\"Zamfara Town Defies Bandits, Rejects N20m Fine - 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