Banditry Has Created 700,000 IDPs In Zamfara, Says Matawalle

Banditry has sent more than 700, 000 Zamfara State residents to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps, Governor Bello Matawalle, said yesterday.

The IDPs were created by bandits across the 14 local government areas of the Northwest state that make up the state.

According Matawalle, his administration has established eight centres across the state to take care of the displaced persons.

The Zamfara governor’s claim came on day his Katsina State colleague Aminu Bello Masari ruled out fresh negotiations with terrorists operating the state.

Masari said his administration took the decision having realised the failure of the bandits to honor earlier agreements they reached with the government

Speaking through his Information Commissioner Ibrahim Dosara at a joint press conference with Security Home Affairs Commissioner Mamman Tsafe in Kaduna, Matawalle said “each of the 14 local government areas of the state currently has emergency relief desk officers shouldering the responsibilities of assisting the IDPs in their respective local government.

According to the Zamfara helmsman, aside the food items, clothing, bed, mattresses among other items provided by the government, international donor agencies complement the efforts through cash transfer to the IDPs ranging from N30,000 to N40,000 periodically to the victims.

He said: “The Federal Government too has been committing huge sum in this regard. The Zamfara State government remains grateful to all who contributes to relieving the worries of these innocent people across the state.”

He said the government decided to train some of the victims on skills acquisition programmes.

The governor said: “As the adage goes ‘teach a man how to catch fish is better than to give him fish’ the Zamfara State government through the Ministry for Humanitarian has embarked on training some of the victims of the banditry on skills acquisition programmes, bordering on tailoring, barbing saloon, pure water making and providing Keke-Nafef to some beneficiaries.

“On the security challenges facing the state, Dosara remarked that concerted efforts have been put in place one of such is the recruitment of 4,200 Community Protection Guards (CPG).

“These protection guards are comprising of our ex-servicemen, volunteer able-bodied men and other patriotic citizens with have the love of the state at heart. “They are mainly recruited to support our security operatives to confront these bandits in their enclaves, with a view to curtailing the menace.

“It may interest the members of the pen profession to note that these 4,200 CPGs have already commenced the basic training and are now collaborating with our security operatives chasing the bandits.”

On the peace efforts with bandits, he noted that following the initial dialogue with the bandits as well as the peace reconciliation efforts, there was relative peace as the majority of the bandits succumbed to the peace process.

He however, said that, the few who turned down the request of the government to lay down arms are the ones who have become thorns in the flesh and still causing mayhem, blood birth and kidnapping of the innocent Zamfara citizenry.

“The boycott of the source of supplies of the bandits no doubt created serious pressure against them forcing others to flee to neighbouring states. Yet, others among them surrendered their weapons voluntarily and pronounced dumping bandit activities.

“Unknown to many Nigerians, bandits apart, there are some unpatriotic, conflict entrepreneurs politicians hell-bent to sabotage peace process out of their selfish desire either to gain power or to deter the successes of His Excellency, inconsiderate of the consequences of their action to Zamfara state and its citizenry.”

In Katsina, Masari said terrorists cannot be trusted considering that they betrayed the state government after it had fulfilled all the conditions and requests they made earlier

He spoke while responding to a question by UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Mr. Peter Hawkins, who was in a delegation led by the Head of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Nigeria, Mohammed Yahya, during a visit to the Government House in Katsina,

The UNICEF chief wanted to know if the government can engage the bandits in fresh negotiation as part of measures aimed at reducing military pressure on them and boosting massive enrolment in education.

Masari said: “With the benefit of hindsight, my government should never have negotiated with the terrorists, let alone grant them amnesty because they are not propagating any ideology, they are criminals.

“Some of the ‘so-called repentant’ terrorists who were released from custody as a result of the peace deals are now leaders of terrorists with more than 100 gangs and various camps in Zamfara, Sokoto and Katsina States.

“The governors of the Northwest states confronted with the security problems joined hand in adopting uniformed approach to the challenge, but were later disappointed by the failed response recorded from the bandits.”

Urging the UN to use its connections to break the chain of inflow of arms and ammunition into the country, Masari stressed the need to support the North with modern technology to track the movement of criminals in the forest.

Yahya described their visit as a follow-up mission to Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara the three states facing security challenges in the northern Nigeria.