Gov Matawalle says banditry will not end anytime soon

Governor Matawalle of Zamfara State says the criminal activities of bandits now terrorists in the state are not likely to come to an end anytime soon.

The governor said this while addressing the State House correspondents on Monday, January 17, 2022, after his meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said some people are fueling terrorism in the state to show Nigerians that the state and the Federal Government are not serious about the fight against bandits.

The governor said despite the effort of those fueling terrorism in Zamfara, security has improved in the state over the past week.

He said, “So you see with the kind of people we have in Zamfara state, I don’t think this issue of banditry will end very soon because, already, some people are behind it. Some people are using it.

“And all they need is at least to show Nigerians that both the federal and Zamfara state governments are not serious on the issue of insecurity, despite the fact that some of them are involved in the crisis of this insecurity. But we’re doing our best.

“So, I briefed Mr. President on what happened and the next action that we should take and the government is doing everything possible to make sure that we bring sanity in the state.

“And I assure people that we have all it takes to fight these people and he has motivated me and when we go back on Wednesday, the people will see changes between now and Wednesday because I know what we discussed and I know what is going to happen within this period.”

On the recent killings in the state, Matawalle said the death toll is 58 and not 200. He added that political bandits were spreading lies about the figures.

The governor said he visited the scenes of the attacks and got first-hand information from the emirs.

He said, “I have already cleared the air about the figures because I have seen some reports that 200 people, 300 people, 500 people were killed. But I went to the community by myself with the security agencies,” he said.

“First, we went to Bungudu and we confirmed from the emir that it was only 36 people that had been killed and two communities were razed by these bandits.

“When we went to Anka, we met the emir and he gave us a list of 22 people that had been killed, making the total number of 58 people killed.

Matawalle, however, said that those suspected to be collaborating with terrorists would soon be fished out