The state’s Commissioner for information, Ibrahim Magaji Dosara said Governor Matawalle’s directive for telecommunications services to be restored is on course.

Dosara who asked residents of the state to exercise more patience, stated that the request for the restoration which will be addressed to the Minister of Communications and NCC, must be backed up with security reports and other bureaucratic procedures.

The statement read “This is to notify the general public that following the directives by His Excellency the Gov, Hon Bello Muhammed Matawallen Maradun to restore all networks of telecommunications services, the directive is on course. The attention of the general public is therefore hereby drawn to the processes involved in the restoration of the telecommunications networks. These include the legal procedure of drafting and signing of the executive order permitting the restoration, the survey of the current security situation in each of the 14 local government areas to ascertain the type of arrangements to be put in place after the restoration of the telecommunications networks. The request for the restoration from the Minister of Communications and NCC must be backed up with the security reports and other bureaucratic procedures involved.”

Asides from pointing out that the failure of some states in the Northwest region to enter into dialogue with the bandits has further led to the degeneration of the menace, the Zamfara state Governor also noted that the killing of a prominent Fulani leader in Dansadau was another factor responsible for the escalation of banditry in the state.

According to him, followers of the Fulani leader in Zamfara, Kebbi, and Sokoto states became aggrieved with his killing and started attacking perceived killers of their leader to avenge his death.

Speaking through his Commissioner-designate, Ibrahim Dosara at a Security Conference in Kaduna State, Matawalle said this led to hostilities between the Fulani and Hausa communities, with each group attacking and killing one another.

He also pointed out that the herders and farmers’ conflict lingered for too long due to the weakening of the traditional institution and the judiciary in resolving the problem or prosecuting the offender.

Alleging that inability of the government to resolve the conflict consequently made some of the actors involved devise some other means of tackling the problem, he also listed other contributory factors that escalated banditry in Zamfara state as the proliferation of arms into the Northwest region through the porous borders from some African countries like Mali, Libya, and Chad.

In a statement the Governor personally signed, he said Buhari made the promise after Governors from northern states took turns to table their experiences, expectations from the government, and efforts at finding lasting solutions at a recent meeting.

He said “The president assured that he will put an end to the menace and return the region and the country at large to its lost glories. It is time for us to end destructions and killings, let’s nurture the habits of forgiveness of our wrongs, refrain from divisive tendencies and become united. We shall remain focused on the development of the nation and shun political differences irrespective of the party we belong. Leaders must deliberate on solutions, refrain from selfish interests and greed to end unwanted killings and destruction of property. Insurgency, especially in the northeast and other banditry activities, have hindered economic activities, education, agriculture and other social activities in northern Nigeria”

Matawalle said this in an interview on DW Hausa while firing back at those calling for his removal over his defection.

The Governor said “Let the people of Zamfara continue engaging with their own business as usual. Those who are mongering this are ignorant. They are worried about the second term, not me. No one is guaranteed for tomorrow, even an hour per se. I am contented with what Allah made me. As far as I am concerned, if I am done with this first term successfully, I am okay with that. I am grateful to Allah and to the people of Zamfara. I’m not the first governor to have defected to another party. But what you should understand here is that, for our people here in the north, we are the problem of our selves. That’s the reason you can see power is about to vacate from the region. This’s because all those that call themselves leaders of the north are just people of deceit and oppression. My reason here is that there’s a former governor of Sokoto State who vowed that if PDP failed to drag me to court; he would leave the party. They’re insisting that I must be sued. But if I am sued, they have nothing against me. Didn’t they know the law and Nigeria’s constitution? And am I the only first person to have defected? There’s nothing that could scare me and I remain the governor of Zamfara, whether they like it or not.”

He also reacted to claims made by the acting National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Yekini Nabena, that he was sponsoring banditry in the North West.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja, the governor said the Kankara schoolboys were released in Zamfara State before they were moved to Katsina State, where they were received by government officials.

He said, “As soon as the boys were kidnapped, we stepped in. We reached out to repentant bandits in the state. Negotiations were made and that was how they were released. The boys were released in Zamfara before they were moved to Katsina. Before I came on board as the executive governor of Zamfara State, over 7,000 people were killed in such crisis and a dozen of hundreds of others were kidnapped by bandits within the eight years of my predecessor. Records have also shown that almost a million cattle and related animals were rustled by bandits in the state. Property and farm produce worth billions of naira belonging to innocent citizens were either destroyed, vandalised or carted away by these criminals. All these calamities and catastrophic consequences occurred in the hands of the APC government that ruled Zamfara State for almost a decade. However, between May 29, 2019, when I took over the leadership of the state to date, I rescued more than 2,000 kidnapped victims from their abductors. I collected over a thousand weapons from both the bandits and the members of the vigilante groups operating in the state. It is also worth noting here that, for almost two years of my administration now, Zamfara State has not recorded such a number of deaths, as was the case before my administration when hundreds of innocent people were being massacred almost on a daily basis.”

The state’s Commissioner of Education, Ibrahim Abdullahi, who disclosed this to newsmen in Gusau, the state capital, said the affected schools included Government Secondary Schools in Zurmi, GSS Birnin Magaji, (boarding), and G.A.S.S Zurmi (boarding), and G.G.S.S Moriki (boarding).

Abdullahi said the move became necessary in order to avert kidnapping incident, he said “we will not want what happened in Katsina to happen in Zamfara State. All the Principals of the affected schools have been directed to ensure immediate closure of the affected schools,”

The Zamfara State Governor who disclosed this after presenting some gold bars and other precious stones mined in his State to President Muhammadu Buhari said his administration decided to embrace the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative to stop the criminal act being championed by illegal miners in the state.

Matawalle said “It’s very important to us as a government, particularly, the issue of insecurity, to know the root cause of insecurity. Zamfara state is blessed with many minerals resources and some people outside the country come in to buy gold and other precious stones and sometimes instead of paying people, they pay back with arms. I did some investigations. So, the state government will be buying some of these minerals so that we can block that chain. So, now the state government is engaging the miners. We’ll be buying some of this gold from them with the limited resources we have. “