By our reporter| Zamfara state governor, Bello Matawalle, on Thursday offered bandits in the state a path to rehabilitation as he pledged to exchange two cows for each AK47 rifle they surrendered.
The governor who made the offer when he recieved Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police, Yusuf Bichi, director-general, Department of State Services (DSS), and other security heads, in the state, explained that he chose to offer cows because the bandits need the cows to advance their economic interests.
Matawalle said, “For every rifle submitted by a repentant bandit, there would be compensation of two cows. We don’t want to give them money, so they wouldn’t use the money to purchase new weapons.”
“We said we will compensate them with cows, they need the cows to advance their economic interest.
“We also told the repentant bandits that all “Dabas” (Camps) in the forests should be disbanded. We won’t accept a situation where the bandits will disarm and then go back to the forest and be staying in these camps or Dabas
“We asked them to either come to town and be reintegrated into the society or be given economic empowerment where they are, so that they would start a new life.
“Most of them are residing in forests under the shades of trees and inside caves. That is why we came up with RUGA policy to help them.”
Zamfara is one of the north western states that have in the last couple of years become one of the epicentres of bandit attacks leading to loss of lives and properties worth millions of naira.
Leave a Reply