Residents of Moriki town in Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State have expressed worry as the deadline given to them by the leader of bandits Bello Turji to pay N30 million draws closer.
Turji was said to have initially imposed a N50 million fine on the people as compensation for the killing of his cows by the new commander of the army base stationed in Moriki.
The people however managed to convince him to reduce the sum to N30 million.
Each family head is required to contribute N10,000 while unmarried adults were mandated to pay N2,000, reports say.
The deadline is on Wednesday, September 11.
Some residents told the BBC that they feared what would happen if the amount was not raised as some of their people were being held by Turji.
One person, who spoke anonymously, said Turji told them that the compensation must be paid and then he would allow the villagers to harvest their crops.
“If we say we are going to run away, we think this is the easiest option to raise this money to pay the debt,” he said.
A spokesman for Zamfara State governor Mustapha Kaura said the government was not aware of Turji’s action and the situation of the people of Moriki.
He said, “The position of our government is that it will not negotiate or reconcile with the bandits, so now we will do a thorough investigation to find out the nature of the matter and how to help the people of Moriki…”
Zamfara State Government recently disowned a viral document alleging it paid over N1 billion to bandits.
