Governor Bello Mohammed Matawalle of Zamfara state has said that he will soon meet with President Muhammadu Buhari to discuss and seek the assistance of the federal government towards the launching of a N50 billion Orphans and Widows Foundation in the state.
He said the appeal fund is intended to alleviate the sufferings of the 4,483 widows whose husbands were killed as a result of armed banditry along with their children in the state.
The governor made the announcement in his speech after receiving the full report of the Committee he set up in July, this year to find solutions to banditry in the state which was headed by the former Inspector-General of Police, MD Abubakar.
Matawalle also said the number of women and children left behind by 6,319 slain victims of armed banditry raised a lot of concern not only to Zamfara but to Nigeria as a nation because if the children were not cared for, their realization in the future of what led to the demise of their parents with nothing done can be devastating to the whole nation and can be worst than what the bandits did in the last eight years in the state.
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The governor who commended the foresight of the members of the committee in their recommendations affirmed that with the support of the president and the federal government, if the foundation is actualized and launched in the first quarter of the year 2020, the foundation and its proceeds will be insulated from the bureaucracy of the government but entrusted to a board of trustees whose members shall be honest and credible Nigerians with impeccable character and have indisputable records of selfless service without blemish.
He assured the Zamfara people that while implementing the recommendations of the committee, he will not be misguided by personal relationship, sectional, geographical, religious and ethnic interests especially the recommendations that touched on sanctions and disciplinary measures.
The committee had earlier informed the governor that five emirs, 33 district heads and several village heads were confirmed to be complicit in the banditry activities which lasted for about a decade before the inception of the PDP led administration under Matawalle.
The committee also indicted 10 military officers as well as police and civilians having hands in supporting the bandits who killed hundreds of innocent persons, burnt villages, destroyed farmlands, foodstuffs and livestock.
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