Masari: Children abandoned in the forest now fighting us as bandits

Aminu Masari, governor of Katsina state, says the children abandoned in the forest across the region without education are now coming back to fight the society as bandits.

The governor said this at the weekend, while addressing his administration’s effort in curbing the activities of bandits in the state.

Masari said if the education of the people is not addressed, the situation might become worse in the future.

“We have problems now with the forest people because they  have no education of any kind. They do not have Islamic education and they do not have Western education because they have been abandoned in the forest and forgotten.  So these are the kind of children who have come up today, fighting us, fighting the society,” Masari said.

“If we don’t do more to address it, what will come out of the forest in the next 20 years compared with what we have today, will turn out to be like a child’s play.

“Due to lack of education, they  only know one pleasure, which  is pleasure of the flesh and that is why they keep on producing children in large numbers.

“I was told this evening that somebody can mobilise over 350 armed men from the forest and we are talking about  350 men without formal schooling, neither Islamic nor Western and they are all married and have children.”