Gombe State, is a fast growing state in the northern Nigeria with significant business potentials. The state is also progressing speedily in terms of infrastructure and population. And there is no serious security challenges like banditry, kidnapping and insurgency in Gombe as experienced in several northern states.
However, one thing that threatens the peace and tranquility of the state is youth thuggery. Over the years, since the transition to civil rule in 1999, Gombe residents are pestered with nefarious activities of thugs notoriously called ‘Kalare’.
These thugs started as political vanguards who followed politicians during electioneering, carrying their posters, billboards and serving as bodyguards to their political leaders but later turned into violent gangs that intimidate innocent people in parts of the state.
Even after turning into violent people, politicians in the state were said to retain them as fans during political activities where they hold and brandish weapons like machetes, knives and sticks with impunity. They often clash with different gangs leading to vicious fighting, killing and injuring of one another.
Gradually, their violence escalated as they attack innocent people even without provocation. In the last two years, there was violent clash between some youth suspected to be supporters of the state governor Inuwa Yahaya and that of his predecessor, and now senator Danjuma Goje. The incident resulted to deaths, injuries and destruction of vehicles.
In September last year, hoodlums suspected to be ‘Kalare’ boys too, stormed the house of a famous islamic preacher in the state Sheikh Albani Kuri and murdered him, the development that caused tension in the state.
In October 2023, another woman aged 58 was murdered by a youth in Jeka da Fari community in the Gombe metropolis by stabbing her on the neck with a knife, and less than a week after, a female student of the College Of Education (COE) Billiri, in Billiri local government area of the State, was again killed by hoodlums in the midnight in her room off campus.
Aside attacking people, the kalare hoodlums rob people of phones and motorcycles especially at nights.
Some of the kalare flashpoints in the state capital include; Jeka da fari, Bolari, Kumbiya-kumbiya, Pantami, Anguwan-mata, Bypass and Bagadaza.
According to Hashimu Dauda, a resident of the state and PhD student, “kalare boys are energetic youth that are unemployed and mostly uneducated, roaming about the streets in Gombe State especially in Gombe metropolis, who normally go about stealing and robbing public and their properties, like phones, laptops, grains and any other valuable items that will give them money in return to earn a living in their own ways”.
“At some point in time, they kill or injure innocent people using arms and other unwanted weapons like knife and cutlass. And they normally have some inter-group clashes between them that usually lead to the loss of many lives at a time.”, he stated.
He said the past administration as part of efforts to address the menace of kalare, recruited many of them as special marshalls for sanitation etc and gave them stipends on monthly basis just to keep them busy and distract them from violence.
In an interview with our correspondent, one of the victims of recent kalare attack in the state capital, Adamu Babale Makera of Ajiya quarters, behind emir’s palace revealed that he was attacked by one of the kalare boys some months ago in the night at about 10PM at kasuwar waya while coming from his community.
According to him, the attacker wanted to rob him of his motorcycle but failed as he rode his bike fastly after feeling machete’s hit on his back by the thug in his bid to snatch the bike.
He added that after fleeing from the attacker, he noticed that his back bled and therefore rushed to Gombe specialists hospital for treatment. “I then sighted my attacker entering a KEKE NAPEP that was waiting for him.
“I suspect that he came with the KEKE NAPEP and his gangsters were inside in case he needed a back up.”, he disclosed.
Makera revealed that the kalare boys apart from robbing people also attack communities and molest people even if they will not snatch their things.
He added that some of the kalare thugs are also into drug abuse apart from their violent activities
“At times, the miscreants in hotspots come in numbers to fight with rival groups while some peaceful people become victims of circumstance and get attacked too during the encounters.”, he revealed.
This is just as he noted that the kalare boys sometimes just storm vulnerable areas for operation where they terrorise defenseless people who did not offend them.
Makera however hailed the new commissioner of police in the state Hayatu Usman for some of his civil steps to address the menace of kalare such as the rehabilitation of repentant ones via skills acquisition trainings.
Our correspondent reports that the state governor Inuwa Yahaya on his part established a special anti thuggery task force known as “Operation Hattara” (Meaning be careful) that comprises the police, civil defense and vigilante group to tackle the miscreants.
He purchased about 50 vans for use for patrol against the kalare atrocities in parts of the state. This measure, our correspondent observed helps by preventing miscreants from thieving and robbery in parts of the state.
The governor similarly established a new corps known as ‘Gombe State Security, Traffic, and Environmental Corps’ (GOSTEC) to provide jobs to teeming restive youth, thereby mitigating thuggery.
Commenting on the police’ efforts to address kalare in the state, the Police Public Relations Officer of the state police headquarters, Buhari Abdullahi, said they have adopted two measures so far to eradicate kalare.
“That is carrot and stick measures. The carrot measures is a way of rehabilitation and reintegrating the kalare boys through a skills acquisition programme and preaching.
“For instance, the commissioner of police Gombe State police command CP Hayatu Usman psc, has trained 20 repentant kalare boys in different skills such as solar installation, wiring, CCTV installation and home automation system.
“While, the stick measure, this is a measure where punishment is awarded for the offenders, particularly through prosecution. For instance, many kalare boys were arrested and charged to court for prosecution.”, he said.
Other measure, was the restriction of movement in the mid night by the police except by essential workers.
But our correspondent noticed that despite these efforts by the state governor and the police commissioner to surmount the threats of kalare in Gombe, the thugs recently appeared in multiple gangs and hijacked the just conducted hunger protest in the state where they unleashed terror in different areas, the awful event that indicated that kalare boys are still active in Gombe.
