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BANDITRY: Gov. Matawalle vows to make arrest, after generalized revelation of sponsors
By OUR REPORTER
Governor of Zamfara State, North West Nigeria, Hon Bello Mohammed Matawalle, on Sunday 28 February 2021, hinted that Nigerians would be shocked when he would expose the sponsors of bandits particularly who were behind the invasion and subsequent kidnap of 279 female students of the Government Secondary School, Jangebe, in Talata Mafara Local Government Area of the state.
He made this hint while receiving the Federal Government delegation who visited him that same Sunday at the Government House Gusau, the state capital, in effort to safely rescue the kidnapped schoolgirls at the time.
Later, and precisely on Tuesday 2 March 2021, the governor came up again with charge, after revealing the sponsors behind the harrowing occurences of banditry kidnapping in the state to be prominent people and politicians, and vowed that he would arrest any politician, who enters the core Northern state with the intention to use thugs to foment trouble.
He made the vow of arrest, on Tuesday, when the Nigeria Governors’ Forum led by the Governor of Ekiti State, paid him a visit at the State House, Gusau.
The governor, however, did not name any sponsor although, from the tone of his speech, worsening security situation in the state tends to be seen in certain quarters as activities of politicians who were defeated by nature during the 2019 general elections. Although the governor has denied helicopter dropping food and weapons to bandits in the Zamfara bushes following declaration of ‘no-fly zone’ by the Federal Government, sources within his government confirmed that the security issue in Zamfara State started as ethnic fight where some Hausa suddenly began to kill Fulani and Fulani being on the defensive before it escalated to what is now seen as banditry with the bandits’ major source of sustenance is beneficiaries of illegal mining, who take the gold and exchange it with money and weapons with which they encourage the people to go on killing themselves and their people in the part of the North.
According to former lawmaker turned governor, there is nobody that can claim to be above the law of the land, vowing that he had drawn a battle line with the enemies of peace in the state.
Governor Matawalle disclosed this also at the Government House, when the Nigeria Governors’ Forum delegation led by its Chairman and Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, visited him over the release of the girls and to solidarize with him against enemies of peace and progress in Zamfara State.
“These power drunk politicians cannot stay in Abuja, Kaduna or anywhere in Nigeria and be instigating crisis and be sponsoring terrorism in the state, killing thousands of innocent citizens of the state for selfish interest,” he warned.
The Governor cautioned that nobody is a sacred cow or untouchable, stressing that he is now in charge of the affairs of Zamfara State, challenging any of the politicians to dare him and see the consequences.
He maintained that many prominent personalities were solidly behind banditry in the State and that their sins would soon find them out.
