Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has said the decade long banditry in the state has created over 700,000 Internally Displaced Persons(IDPs) across the 14 Local Government Areas that made up the state.
This was disclosed by the state commissioner for Information, Ibrahim Dosara, in a joint press conference with the state commissioner for security and home affairs, Mamman Tsafe, in Kaduna on Sunday.
Dosara who was speaking on behalf of the government remarked that to handle the precarious situation, the state government created the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
He also added that “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.
According to the commissioner in addition to the provision of food items, clothing, bed, mattresses etc by the state government, the Ministry appreciates the untiring efforts of the international donor agencies in this regard.
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“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.
“The Federal Government too has been committing huge sum in this regard. The Zamfara State government remains grateful to all who contributes to relieving the worries of these innocent people across the state.
To this end, he maintained that the government also decided to train some of the victims of banditry on skills acquisition programmes.
“As the adage goes ‘teach a man how to catch fish is better than to give him fish’ the Zamfara State government through the Ministry for Humanitarian has embarked on training some of the victims of the banditry on skills acquisition programmes, bordering on tailoring, barbing saloon, pure water making and providing Keke-Nafef to some beneficiaries.
On the security challenges facing the state, Dosara remarked that concerted efforts have been put in place one of such is the recruitment of 4,200 Community Protection Guards (CPG).
He said these protection guards are comprising of our ex-servicemen, volunteer able-bodied men and other patriotic citizens with have the love of the state at heart.
“They are mainly recruited to support our security operatives to confront these bandits in their enclaves, with a view to curtailing the menace.
“It may interest the members of the pen profession to note that these 4,200 CPGs have already commenced the basic training and are now collaborating with our security operatives chasing the bandits.
On the peace efforts with bandits, he noted that following the initial dialogue with the bandits as well as the peace reconciliation efforts, there was relative peace as the majority of the bandits succumbed to the peace process.
However, said the few who turned down the request of the government to down arms are the ones who have become thorns in the flesh and still causing mayhem, blood birth, kidnapping etc of the innocent Zamfara citizenry.
“The boycott 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 pronounced dumping 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, inconsiderate of the consequences of their action to Zamfara state and its citizenry,” he declared.
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Banditry created 700,000 IDPs in Zamfara ― Gov Matawalle
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