Northern governors at war over sponsorship of bandits

Northen governors are at war over who is behind the bandits responsible for the mindless killings and kidnappings that have become the lot of the region.

Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State, on Friday, while carpeting the All Progressives Congress (APC) for claiming that an unnamed North-West governor was behind the bandits, said his Katsina State counterpart, Aminu Bello Masari, also insinuated the same allegation recently.

While the allegation and counter-allegation continued, the Northern Governors Forum, in a statement, called for a probe of the allegation.

Last week Friday, a gang of armed men invaded the Government Science Secondary School (GSSS), Kankara, Katsina State, and abducted 344 students, who were only released on Thursday evening.

The first salvo of the war of words among the governors in the North West was fired on Thursday when the APC Acting National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, accused “a governor” in the zone of being behind the banditry and other criminal activities in the zone.

Firing back on Friday, the PDP governor of Zamfara State, Matawalle, who claimed to be instrumental in the Friday release of the Kankara schoolboys, said it was “uncharitable” for the APC to think that because of political differences, the relative peace in Zamfara State could only come because the state haboured criminal elements to terrorise neighbouring states.

Matawalle, in a statement endorsed by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication, Zailani Bappa, regretted that Nabena’s utterances were similar to ones earlier expressed by Governor Masari of Katsina State some time ago under a similar circumstance, when he (Matawalle) rescued 26 girls abducted by bandits in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State.

“Governor Matawalle, who has dedicated the whole of his precious time and efforts in the last 100 hours to ensuring the release of these innocent children, was taken aback when, immediately after their release, a statement in the media credited to the National Publicity Secretary of the APC accused him of harbouring bandits who terrorise the North West.

“This is incidentally a similar statement credited to the Katsina State governor, Honourable Aminu Bello Masari, some time ago when in a similar effort, Governor Matawalle rescued 26 innocent girls abducted by bandits in Faskari Local Government Area of the same Katsina State,” the statement said.

Matawalle went down memory lane, saying “it is a known fact that Zamfara State under the APC was the worst hit in terms of banditry in the North West.”

He said that his peace initiative, “which is in tandem with proven records in history across the globe as a viable and necessary option in ending guerrilla warfare and

similar menace of its kind, is hated and rejected by those who fail or lack the capacity to implement it with honesty, resilience and tact.”

The statement said: “Today, Zamfara State is more peaceful than most of its neighbours because Governor Bello Mohammed Matawalle has been honest in the approach, a path which could have been the final solution to the problem the region is facing.

“It is very uncharitable to, due to political differences, attribute the semblance of peace enjoyed in Zamfara State to criminality of harbouring the bandits to terrorise neighbouring states.”

It pointed out that contrary to the APC’s position, “His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, is quite in tune with every step being taken by Governor Matawalle and has, more than once, commended him for the measures he has been taking to end banditry in the state.”

The Zamfara State governor attributed his success at curtailing the activities of bandits in the state to his adoption of carrot-and-stick approach in dealing with the criminal elements by settling with those who accepted the deal and dealing with recalcitrant ones such that over 300 bandits were eliminated within two months.

“It is, therefore, ignorance or mischief to attribute the Zamfara forests as safe havens for criminals. It is also an unfortunate and indirect indictment of the Nigerian military which is in control of the Federal Government,” the statement added.

Taking the baton of war, the second PDP governor in the zone, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State, called on the APC spokesman to name the governor he accused of sponsoring banditry in the zone or be made to face security scrutiny in order to unravel the mystery of who was behind the security breaches in the area.

Tambuwal, while describing Nabena’s statement as false, reiterated that no governor in the entire country, who after swearing the oath of office, would consciously undermine such oath.

He stressed that to think otherwise amounted to “skewed logic intended to upturn the rule of law and the jurisdictional dictates of equity and good conscience.”

Tambuwal said: “For this reason, the onus of proof of his allegation rests on Mr Nabena. He should name the governor he is alluding to as the sponsor of banditry and sundry crimes in the North West and provide evidence that he (the governor) is involved in all of that which he alleged. Otherwise, the security agencies in the country should invite Mr Nabena to provide evidence of his allegation, assist them in investigating the matter and make sure that justice is done.”

The Sokoto State governor, therefore, advised Nigerians and political stakeholders to place premium on human lives instead of playing to the gallery, adding that playing blame games is not a panacea to the security problem at hand.

“None of us should play politics with security matters. We should also not play politics with the lives of those we swore to protect. Instead, all hands must be on deck to ensure the collective security of the North and the country in general,” he stated.

The chairman of the Northern Governors Forum (NGF), Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, in a statement signed by his Director of Press, Dr Makut Simon Machan, urged the security agencies to conduct a full-scale investigation of the allegation, saying that the forum had no tolerance for such conduct (aiding bandits) from any of its members.

The forum said it had been working in unison and in conjunction with the Federal Government and security agencies to bring to an end all forms of insecurity and criminal activities in the region and the nation as a whole.

Lalong said with the release of the 344 students, further measures must be taken to ensure that this ugly incident does not occur again while thorough investigation should also be carried out to ensure that those behind this condemnable act are made to face justice.

Meanwhile, Governor Matawalle of Zamfara State has claimed that he negotiated the release of the Kankara schoolboys without paying a dime to their abductors.

Matawalle, while revealing how he accomplished this, said he used repentant bandits and leadership of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) to first identify the syndicate responsible for the abduction, and then began the process of negotiating the release of the boys.

Explaining how the process began, the governor said: “When we established contact with them, I persuaded them to release them (the schoolboys) unharmed. And so they did tonight. This is not the first time we facilitated the release of our people without payment of ransom.

“Ask anybody, we don’t pay bandits a dime. What we do is to extend an olive branch to them because they also want to live in peace.”

This position was confirmed by Governor Masari of Katsina State, who, in a separate interview, admitted that MACBAN was responsible for the release of the Kankara boys.

Governor Masari also denied claims that the state government paid a ransom to secure the boys’ freedom.

He said the military, the police, his senior special adviser on security, Malam Ibrahim Katsina, and MACBAN were directly involved in the process of getting the boys released.

 

Culled from Nigerian Tribune

Editor

http://http//www.newsallround.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *