Governor Matawalle Reveals Sponsors Of Bandits In Zamfara

The Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, has accused some politicians of being the sponsors of bandits in the North West state.

Speaking in an interview with a radio station, RadioNow on Friday, Matawalle said the politicians were indicted by arrested informants working with the criminals.

The governor, who failed to reveal the identities of the politicians, said the sponsors were also responsible for the collapse of the amnesty programme of his administration.

Matawalle added that the politicians convinced the bandits not to surrender their weapons and dialogue with the state and federal government.

He said: “After we initiated the dialogue, you know it was supposed to be a collective effort — between the government, the people of the state and other political gladiators. Unfortunately, when the government is trying to make sure we have peace, some political elites are thinking they don’t want us to succeed.

“So they’ve been making so many unprecedented comments about the dialogue issues and the reconciliation. And some of them that have connections with the criminals have been telling them all sorts of things so that they shouldn’t believe the government’s amnesty and reconciliation.

“We have some records. Some of the informants that were arrested, we have over 2000 informants under the custody of security agencies, and some of them have opened up and indicted so many people. They said some of the politicians are the ones funding them, telling them the state and federal government are not serious on what we promise to them.”

Meanwhile, the former Governor of Gombe State, Senator Danjuma Goje, was reportedly subjected to humiliation on Friday in Gombe, the state capital.

According to the spokesman of the lawmaker, Lilian Nworie, her principal’s vehicles were attacked by some political thugs around International Conference Centre on the Bauchi – Gombe Road.

Nworie stated Goje’s vehicles were attacked with dangerous weapons as he was about to enter the state capital for a personal engagement.

The media aide stated that the thugs set bonfires on the main road, preventing the Gombe Central Senator from entering into the state.

Nworie, however, accused the state Governor, Inuwa Yahaya, of being the attack, adding that police officers stationed in the area failed to arrest the thugs during the incident.