Solomon Dalung Shares Chilling Encounter With Bandit Met On TikTok, Calls For Nigerians To Bear Arms

Former Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, has shared a startling encounter he once had with a self-proclaimed bandit during a live interaction on TikTok — a conversation he describes as revealing, unsettling, and deeply reflective of Nigeria’s worsening security crisis.

Speaking in an interview with News Central, Dalung explained that he had joined a TikTok session when a young man appeared on the platform, openly identifying himself as a bandit living and operating in the forest.

According to Dalung, curiosity pushed him to ask the young man why he and others like him resort to killing innocent people. The bandit’s answer, he said, was both disturbing and illuminating.

“I was on TikTok one day, and a young bandit trained in the bush came on,” Dalung recounted. “He said he is a bandit. I asked him, ‘Why do you kill people?’ He told me they were also killed and their cattle taken away by vigilantes, so they took up arms and went into the bush.”

Dalung pressed further, challenging the young man on why bandits also attack Fulani communities and rustle their cattle. The response, he said, revealed a warped but dangerous worldview.

“He told me, ‘The only Fulanis we know are the ones in the bush. Anyone in town is not Fulani. If we see them, we will kill them.’”

The former minister said he attempted to steer the conversation towards solutions, asking the bandit what it would take to end the violence. The young man reportedly replied that bandits were open to negotiations but insisted they needed to be engaged before they could drop their weapons.

Dalung described the bandit’s confidence as “quite scary,” noting that the ease with which he justified violence reflected the depth of the crisis facing the nation.

In his remarks, the former minister urged the National Assembly to urgently amend the constitution to allow Nigerians bear arms legally for self-defence, arguing that citizens must be empowered to protect themselves in the face of growing insecurity.

His comments add to a rising chorus of voices calling for decisive action, structural reforms, and stronger community protection mechanisms as banditry, kidnapping, and violent extremism continue to escalate across Nigeria.