Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, has said his government is investigating those collaborating with terrorists in the state with a view to fishing them out.
Matawalle disclosed this in an interview with State House correspondents after a meeting he had with the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday.
“We are still investigating those that are involved in these activities, and we’ll make the public know after the confirmation of the reality of all the information that we have at hand. Because we are working to make sure that all those who have a hand in this insecurity must be brought to justice.
“Therefore, once the investigation is concluded, we’ll inform the public of the result of the investigation of what the security is doing about it,” he explained.
He said banditry may not end any time soon in the state because of the individuals fuelling it.
This is as he insisted that “just 58” people were killed in the recent attacks in Anka and Bukkuyum Local Government Areas of the state, and not 200.
The governor said, despite the effort of those fuelling terrorism, the security of the state has improved over the past week.
He attributed this to Buhari’s determination to heighten security activities, thereby bringing noticeable changes by Wednesday, he predicted.
Matawalle, who noted that he visited the scenes of the attacks, also blamed those he called “political bandits” for throwing unverified figures around.
“With the kind of people we have in Zamfara State, I don’t think this issue of banditry will end very soon because, already, some people are behind it. Some people are using it.
“And all they need is at least to show Nigerians that both the federal and Zamfara state governments are not serious on the issue of insecurity, despite the fact that some of them are involved in the crisis of this insecurity. But we’re doing our best,” he said.
Arguing about the exact figures of casualties, Matawalle said, “Yes, I have already cleared the air about the figures because I have seen some reports that 200 people, 300 people, 500 people were killed. But I went to the community by myself and the security agencies.
“First, we went to Bungudu and we confirmed from the Emir that it was only 36 people that had been killed and these bandits razed two communities. And when we went to Anka, we met the Emir, at the time we met him, he gave us a list of 22 people that had been killed, making a total of 58 people killed.
Copyright PUNCH.
