No more negotiation, governor Matawalle to bandits
POLITICS DIGEST- Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara has said that the state government is no longer interested in dialoguing with bandits as they rejected the olive branch stretched at them earlier.
He said in Gusau that instead, security forces would flush them (bandits) out of the state.
“My administration will no longer grant amnesty to bandits as they have failed to embrace the peace initiative earlier extended to them,’’ the governor said, while addressing a congregation.
He urged residents to be patient and to support new security measures put in place to flush out bandits and their collaborators to restore peace in the state.
The governor said the barrage of attacks on bandits by security forces had made them to make a fresh overture to government seeking dialogue.
He said the bandits’ emissaries informed him that they had repented and would want to dialogue with government.
He noted that some of the bandits were running out of Zamfara to other states as a result of the new security measures introduced by the state government.
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Mr Matawalle warned politicians against giving any form of support to bandits, stressing that: “politicians should fear God and stop buying motorcycles to distribute to people who, in turn, sell to bandits to perpetuate their evil acts.’’
The governor said also that Zamfara government would prosecute any politician caught in the act.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Zamfara had cut off food, petroleum products supply and other essential commodities from the reach of the bandits in their various camps.
The government had also incepted several vehicles conveying food, drinks and petroleum products to various bandits’ camps in the state.
The government said earlier that it had also arrested more than 100 violators of Governor Matawalle’s Executive Order to restore law and order in the state.
Mr Matawalle had established the Special Taskforce to enforce measures to address the lingering security challenges of mass kidnapping for ransom and cattle rustling in the state.
On August 26, the governor signed an Executive Order suspending all weekly markets in Zamfara, banned bicycles and motorcycles from carrying more than one passenger and not more than three passengers in the case of tricycles.
The order read in part: “No bicycle, motorcycle or tricycle shall ply any road or run within Zamfara State between 6.30 p.m. and 6 a.m., while in Gusau metropolis, the ban shall be between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
