Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Suspected thugs stormed the popular phone market at Farm Centre in Kano on Monday afternoon, assaulting traders, snatching mobile phones from passers‑by, and sending shoppers and shop owners into a panic. According to a market source, the attackers were believed to have come directly from a political gathering held at Bristol Palace. The incident, which occurred in broad daylight at Yoyo Plaza within the sprawling GSM hub, forced many traders to flee or barricade themselves inside their shops while the thugs roamed the area unchecked for several minutes.
“The attackers were not ordinary thieves – they were organised,” a trader who witnessed the raid told the Hausa service of Daily Nigerian. “They moved together, targeted specific phone sales points, and did not care about who was watching. They also snatched phones from people walking along the road.” The source added that before the assault on the market, the same group of thugs had reportedly attended a political meeting at Bristol Palace, a well‑known hotel and event centre in Kano. Although no official statement has linked the gathering to any political party, the timing and behaviour of the attackers have fuelled speculation that the raid was a spill‑over of political thuggery, a recurring problem in Kano State where rival political groups often deploy armed youths to intimidate opponents and disrupt economic activities.
The Farm Centre GSM Market is one of the largest mobile‑phone and gadget markets in Northern Nigeria, hosting thousands of traders and service providers across more than twenty plazas. Located in the Tarauni Local Government Area along Zaria Road, the market is a major commercial nerve centre for the city. An attack on such a busy hub in the middle of the day not only caused immediate financial losses but also exposed the vulnerability of traders who had long complained about inadequate security in the area.
The Kano State Police Command reacted swiftly after receiving distress calls from market leaders and residents. A team of police operatives arrived at the scene within minutes, engaged the fleeing thugs and dispersed them. Police officers then secured the market perimeter and conducted a brief patrol of the surrounding streets to reassure traders and shoppers. As of the time of filing this report, there were no confirmed casualties; no trader or passer‑by was reported to have sustained life‑threatening injuries, and no deaths had been recorded.
“We received a complaint about thugs attacking traders at the GSM market, and our men were deployed immediately,” a police source who requested anonymity told reporters. “The situation is now under control. We are still gathering intelligence to identify the attackers and bring them to justice.” The Kano State Police Public Relations Officer had not issued an official statement at the time this report was filed, but a senior officer confirmed that an investigation had been opened.
Phone‑snatching has become an epidemic in Kano in recent months. According to the Kano State Police Command, over 200 suspected thugs and phone snatchers were arrested in the latter half of 2025 alone. In early April 2026, the command announced the arrest of two individuals accused of using voice‑modulation techniques to impersonate spirits – locally called “Aljannu” – to defraud more than 500 residents through phone calls. The state government had earlier deployed special “phone theft marshals” to curb the rising wave of mobile‑phone theft, but the marshals focus mostly on street snatching rather than organised raids on markets.
The attack on the Farm Centre market also drew attention to the broader phenomenon of political thuggery in Kano. In March 2026, a pro‑Kwankwaso group accused the All Progressives Congress of sponsoring political thugs to attack its members during a gathering in Rogo Local Government Area. Police records show that in 2025, at least 17 gang leaders were arrested as part of a crackdown on political thugs. The current incident, in which thugs allegedly moved directly from a political gathering to a major market, raises fresh concerns about the nexus between political mobilisation and organised crime.
Traders at Farm Centre expressed mixed feelings about the response of security agencies. While many praised the quick arrival of the police, others noted that the attack could have been prevented if market patrols had been more frequent. “We have been asking for a permanent police post inside the market for years,” said a shop owner who gave his name simply as Murtala. “Today we were lucky that the thugs were only interested in snatching phones and not in killing people. Next time, we may not be so lucky.”
The Kano State Government has previously unveiled plans to redevelop and modernise the Farm Centre GSM Market, including the establishment of a dedicated management structure to ensure transparency and security. Following a fire incident in 2025, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf pledged over N2 billion for the rehabilitation of the market. However, traders and market leaders say that physical security has not kept pace with the redevelopment effort.
As of Monday evening, no group had claimed responsibility for the attack, and police had not announced any arrests. The market remained open, but many shops closed early as traders locked up and went home. The Kano State Police Command has urged members of the public to report any suspicious movements and has promised that the perpetrators will be identified and prosecuted.
The incident has once again highlighted the ease with which armed thugs can disrupt economic life in Kano, one of Nigeria’s largest and most commercially vital cities. While the prompt police response averted a more tragic outcome, the underlying problem – the fusion of political thuggery with ordinary criminality – remains unresolved. Until the authorities dismantle the networks that recruit and arm these gangs, traders at Farm Centre and other markets across Kano will continue to live in fear of the next raid.
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