Zamfara govt should drop reconciliation with bandits ― Hon Jaji

Former governorship aspirant in  Zamfara state,  Hon Aminu Sani Jaji has accused the State governor,  Bello Muhammad Matawalle of treating insecurity in the state with kid gloves.

Speaking with newsmen in Abuja during the weekend, the former member of the House of Representatives and Chairman House Committee on Security and Intelligence alleged that kingpins of the bandits terrorising the Northwest state were allegedly being placated and are enjoying state patronage under the guise of reconciliation.

He appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to use his good offices to call Governor Matawalle to order as he maintained that the bandits were not remorseful in their act of criminality.

He said:” There was a time the Commissioner of Police in Katsina state declared one Ado Aliero wanted and I laughed at them because the same wanted Ado Aliero is holding a meeting with the Zamfara government and now there is reconciliation or dialogue going on.

“Now how can the state government say they are doing reconciliation or dialogue with criminals, while maybe they consider the state as a hideout so that if they want to do their operation, they will fly from Zamfara to Katsina, so I think the president needs to look into this issue of reconciliation in Zamfara state. When I was in the office, honestly I challenged this issue of reconciliation with bandits because it is purely political. There is no way you will be reconciling with criminals, they will tell you they have one hundred AK47 and where they use to get their AK47 is through their rustled cows and now you are doing reconciliation with them and you are giving them free money, it is like you are empowering them.

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” I believe  President, Muhammadu Buhari, needs to look at these issues critically, all these reconciliations, and even the people appointed by the state governor to manage these reconciliation issues. I urge the President to direct the security agencies, the Inspector General of police, the Department of States Services (DSS), to look at these issues with the bandits.”

Honourable Jaji further alerted the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu to check the excesses of the Commissioner of Police in Zamfara State,  Usman Nagogo, whom he alleged was a tool in the hands of Governor Matawalle for politically motivated arrests of chieftains of the opposition party in the State, the APC.

“APC is the majority in Zamfara but because we want to accommodate our people and because we want peace in our state, we decided to be in the opposition, but after a while, series of intimidation and harassment coming from the PDP government, arresting and detaining our members. Levelling false allegations against them. We have been crying and shouting before the security agencies and up to this moment, most of them look at our complaint as something that should not be heard, which is unfair because we are Nigerians and we have the right to be in an opposition party. We have the right to display our own political activities in accordance with the law.

“The police has refused to give adequate protection to the APC members in Zamfara state. One of our colleagues was arrested and they alleged that he sponsored bandits and just last week, another APC stalwart and sixteen others were arrested by the police in his own residence and they levelled the same allegation against him, that they have intelligence report that he is holding a meeting with repentant bandits, according to the police commissioner. When I got this information I called the Commissioner of Police to complain but he said he is not aware of who arrested them and that he is not aware of the arrest. Later they bailed him unconditionally. So that means it was a political arrest. As the chief law officer, he is heating up the state.

Our demand is for the IGP to look at all our complaints none of them was attended to, from the time the PDP government came on board. So we want the IGP to look at it and call the Commissioner  of Police to order so that he will do the needful by conducting himself according to the ethics of his profession.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE