BREAKING: Bandits Slaps ₦50m ‘Tax’ on Zamfara Communities, Gives 7-Day Ultimatum

By Tgnews Reporter

Dreaded armed bandit leader Kachalla Dan Sa’adiyya has issued a seven-day ultimatum to Gama Giwa and surrounding communities in Maradun Local Government Area to pay a ₦50 million “enforced tax levy” or face deadly consequences.

Residents told journalists in hushed voices that the fresh demand comes barely weeks after they were forced to provide free labour on the bandit leader’s vast farmlands throughout the 2025 rainy season.

“For months, our men, women and even young boys were taken at gunpoint to clear, plant and weed his farms. We worked from dawn to dusk without a kobo. After harvesting his crops, we thought the suffering was over. Instead, he has now sent word that each community must contribute millions of naira,” a community elder said on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Another resident lamented: “He has turned himself into a government. He collects ‘tax’, controls movement, and decides who farms or not. We are living like slaves in our own land.”

The ₦50 million levy is to be shared among Gama Giwa and neighbouring villages, with village heads reportedly summoned and handed specific quotas to deliver before the deadline expires next week.

Sources say failure to meet the ransom-like demand in the past has led to burning of houses, abduction of women and children, and mass killings in the affected areas.

Despite the presence of military and police operations in Zamfara, Kachalla Dan Sa’adiyya (one of the most feared bandit commanders in the North-West) continues to operate with near impunity, running what locals now describe as a “parallel taxation system” across several communities.

As terror and despair grip Maradun and beyond, residents are left asking one haunting question: “How did armed bandits become the de-facto revenue collectors terrorising rural Nigeria?”

Security analysts warn that until the root causes of banditry are decisively tackled, more communities will continue to live under the shadow of criminal warlords who now function as unofficial “governors” in parts of Zamfara and neighbouring states.