Bello Matawalle, governor of Zamfara state, has offered
armed bandits in the state two cows in exchange of each AK47 rifle surrendered.
He made the offer when he hosted Mohammed Adamu,
inspector-general of police, Yusuf Bichi, director-general, Department of State
Services (DSS), and other security heads, on Thursday.
The governor explained that he chose to offer cows because
the bandits need the cows to advance their economic interests.
“For every rifle submitted by a repentant bandit, there
would be compensation of two cows. We don’t want to give them money, so they
wouldn’t use the money to purchase new weapons,” he said.
“We said we will compensate them with cows, they need the
cows to advance their economic interest.
“We also told the repentant bandits that all “Dabas” (Camps)
in the forests should be disbanded. We won’t accept a situation where the
bandits will disarm and then go back to the
forest and be staying in these camps or Dabas
“We asked them to either come to town and be reintegrated
into the society or be given economic empowerment where they are, so that they
would start a new life.
“Most of them are residing in forests under the shades of
trees and inside caves. That is why we came up with RUGA policy to help them.”
Zamfara is one of the states which has come under repeated
attacks from bandits.
Clueless government.
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