Zamfara govt accuses politicians of sabotaging dialogue with bandits

The Zamfara State government on Sunday accused some selfish politicians of sabotaging the peace initiative with bandits in the state.

The state’s Commissioner for Information, Ibrahim Dosara, who stated this at a media briefing in Kaduna, said following the collapse of the peace initiative, the state government blocked the bandits’ sources of supply and forced many of them to flee to neighbouring states.

The state’s Commissioner for Security and Home Affairs, Mamman Tsafe, was also at the briefing.

Dosara, however, lamented that some politicians were hell-bent on sabotaging the peace process because of their ulterior motives despite the bandits’ agreement with the government on the initiative.

He said: “The blockade 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 dumped 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, Governor Bello Matawalle.”

READ ALSO: Zamfara bandits killed 2,619, collected N970 million ransom in eight years – Gov Matawalle

The commissioner also revealed that the state government had initiated moves to resettle the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) through the creation of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.

Dosara added: “Eight centres were established across the state in order to take care of the over 700,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) across Zamfara State.

“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.

“These donor agencies complement the efforts of the state government through cash transfer to our IDPs ranging from N30,000 to N40,000 periodically to these victims.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now