Matawalle Finally Opens Up on Dialogue With Bandits, Reveals Why His Govt Backed Out

• Bello Matawalle, the governor of Zamfara, has vowed that there won't be any amnesty for the bandits in the state
• Matawalle said the state government was deceived by the bandits under the guise of dialogue to sheath their sword
• The governor made this known on Thursday, September 16, while speaking after meeting with President Buhari

Gusau, Zamfara - Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara has stated that the state reversed the decision to dialogue with bandits because the government was deceived.

TheCable reports that Matawalle had previously said dialogue is the best option to tackle banditry in the country.

Legit.ng gathered that he had also asked his colleagues to endeavour to negotiate with bandits in the interest of promoting peace.

The report, however, said the governor while attending a Juma’at service on September 10, noted that the state would no longer offer amnesty to repentant bandits.

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Speaking on Thursday, September 16, while fielding questions from State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Matawalle said the state now enjoys relative peace.

The Nation also reports that he said the state government remains committed to the fight against banditry, adding that the measures put in place to restore peace have yielded results.

He said:

“They have deceived us. Some of them did not follow what we agreed with them. We thought it was something we could continue with them, but we later realised that they had deceived us. So, we had to back out of it and decide to fight them to a logical conclusion,” he said.

“As you are aware, we have a lot of security personnel that were deployed to Zamfara state and they are working seriously.”

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On the current situation in the state, Matawalle said there is calm and people are going on with their daily activities.

He added that his government had imposed a lot of measures, adding that the people are happy with the measures because they had suffered a lot.

The governor said people were being killed and kidnapped every day before, saying that, "today we have succeeded. We don’t have many of such issues in Zamfara state.”

Bandits invade Zamfara again, set House of speaker, others ablaze

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Bandits in Zamfara state carried out a daring attack in Zurmi local government area of the state.

It was reported that during the attack, the bandits set the home of the speaker of Zamfara state House of Assembly, Nasiru Muazu Magarya, and other residents ablaze.

Zamfara state chairman of the committee on security and prosecution of bandits, Abdullahi Shinkafi, on Monday, September 13, confirmed bandits invaded the community and set ablaze some houses, Sahara Reporters added.

Source: Legit.ng