Matawalle alleges ‘conflict entrepreneurs’ behind unending insecurity, banditry in North-West

Bello Matawalle, the minister of state for defence, has alleged that conflict entrepreneurs, who profit from the region’s security issue, are connected to the persistent banditry in the North-West.

The claim was made on Sunday during an interview in Abuja with the News Agency of Nigeria by the former governor of Zamfara State.

He said, “Banditry has its economy, which is fuelling the crime in the country. Conflict entrepreneurs don’t want insecurity to finish in this country. Many people in the North are part of the business.

“I call it business now because those selling drugs are part of it, those selling food, fuel and other essentials are all part of it.

“The informants get a lot from doing that. They are paid handsomely for that crime.

“So, they don’t want the evil to finish. Many people have keyed into the business.”

He explained that during his tenure as governor of Zamfara, he observed that when a bottle of coke was sold for N100 in the city, some people sold it for as much as N500 to bandits in their enclaves.

“Also, when a bag of rice was sold for between N18,000 and N21,000, when it got to the enclave of the bandits, it went for as much as N80,000,” he added.

The minister, however, said that security was a collective responsibility for all Nigerians, urging all to put their differences aside, and team up to fight it.

He said that if not for some of the actions he took as a governor, the northern part of the country would have been burning by now.

READ ALSO: Gov Lawal alleges Matawalle left about N4m in Zamfara account

“If not for some actions I took when I was a governor, by this time, northern Nigeria would be in a big fire.

“Remember that I was the first governor in the whole north who cut off the communication network in his state.

“I cut off the network to allow security agencies to go in and push out those criminals.

“I did that because there were many times that if our soldiers were going to do some operations before they reached the enclave of the bandit, the bandits would be informed.

“Their informants will inform them, so they normally ambush our soldiers, killing them.”

Matawalle further debunked claims in some quarters that the Federal Government was negotiating with criminals.

“Some people are saying that the government is negotiating. What kind of negotiation? With whom and for what?

“They should come out and tell the world what kind of negotiation. In military operations, there is the kinetic and non-kinetic approach.

“In a non-kinetic approach, for example, the community has to be involved, just like what happened in the Niger Delta.

“I was in the House of Representatives when amnesty was granted to the Niger Delta militants, it was for them to stop carbon deregulation and other criminalities in the region.

“But if you look at bandits, what are they agitating for? Nothing. They are just normal criminals like armed robbers.

“But now, with what we have put in place through community reforms, we can fight these killers.”

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