A former Director General of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Brig-Gen Maharazu Tsiga, rtd, has said that the bandits terrorising communities may be receiving backing from powerful people in government and other positions of authority.

Tsiga stated this at a press conference in Kaduna on the late Major-General Rabe Abubakar, rtd who died in bandits’ captivity in Katsina State.

“It was a terrible experience in the hands of bandits during the period,” Tsiga, who was also kidnapped earlier this year from his hometown in Katsina, said.

According to the former NYSC DG, his experience with the bandits exposed him to a very disturbing support system that existed outside the forests, with informants, logistics suppliers and people allegedly connected to corridors of power.

“These people may have the backing of the powers that be. This was a problem on one of the nights I was there around 2am. Somebody called and said, ‘Please, Kachala, are you ready to buy 10 cartons of ammo?

He said, ‘Yes, but let me finish with one old man. When he finished talking and was talking to me I asked him, joking, ‘put me inside this business now.’

He said, ‘Who are you? You are a former general. You don’t have an office. “We are talking to people who are in office now,” Tsiga said.