The Governor of Zamfara State, Dr Bello Mutawalle on Wednesday in
New York disclosed that his administration had freed over 420 hostages
abducted by bandits in the state without paying any ransom.
Mutawalle, while fielding questions from reporters on the sidelines
of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), explained that
his policy of dealing directly with the bandits had produced results
making the state as one of the most peaceful in the country as at now.
The Zamfara State governor, therefore, advised his fellow governors
whose states are in the throes of banditry to adopt similar measure and
be sincere about it.
Mutawalle said: “When I took over the affairs of the state, I met a lot of challenges which made me to carefully study the scenario, and I did.
“I had to invite all the stakeholders to meet with them,
discuss with them, to hear from both sides, the Fulani and the Yan Sake,
that is the vigilance group. I met with all of them and discussed the
way forward.
“I had a lot of briefs about all the scenarios, which I intended to approach with all sincerity, which I have done.
“I saw that it was very important for the government to be
fully involved in the dialogue and we have to be sincere in the
dialogue. We have done that and we have achieved what we needed.
“We thank God that we have recorded a lot of successes from all the angles, both from the vigilance group and the Fulani group.
“Before I came, there were a lot of people in captivity. Some
had spent about seven months, including some foreign nationals, Koreans,
Nigeriens, Ghanaians, but along the line, during my time, I have
secured their release without paying any ransom, without any conditions.
So, I thank God for that.
“What I have put at the back of my mind is that I don’t need to
play blame games. Blaming this one or that one doesn’t make any sense.
All we want to do is to concentrate on the good work we are doing and we
are doing that.
“We thank God that as at today, Zamfara is one of the peaceful states in Nigeria.”
On the specific number of hostages freed since he came on board he said: “As at today because, we have another set of people that were freed, about 30 of them, 15 men and 15 women.
“In fact, one of the women was taken when she was four months
pregnant. But now, she has been delivered and the baby has now started
crawling. We have secured their release.
“Now, we have about 420 that we have freed without ransom. We
have already started disarmament and we have received a lot of
sophisticated weapons now in the possession of the Commissioner of
Police and other agencies.
“We have recorded a lot of success and we are going to continue
like that because Nigeria is our country. We have to make sure we
secure our people and our boundaries.”
Speaking on why governors in the same shoes should negotiate
directly with bandits in their state with sincerity, the Zamfara said: “What
I will advise my colleagues is to be sincere in all their dealings.
They have to do direct contact without intermediaries. They should be
talking to the bandits directly and they have to listen to them every
minute. They don’t have to give any gap. They have to follow them step
by step.
“And this person – they need to know your seriousness – they
need to be talking to you anytime they want to. Sometimes, things will
happen and they won’t know who to talk to.
“I am open to them and my phone is always 24 hours in action.
So, if anything happens, they will call me and I will respond to that
with immediate effect.
“So, they (governors) need to do that. If they do that, they will succeed as I have succeeded.”
Speaking on the gains of his visit to the United States, he said it
would attract investors in agriculture and mining for the benefit of
the people of the state.
He added: “You know my state, Zamfara is blessed with abundant
mineral resources and agriculture. So, am here to showcase what we have
to other investors.
“And we have started talking to most of these investors with
some of them showing interest to go into agriculture and mining. At the
end of the day, we are going to make public all the benefits the
investors will get from here.
“I assure my people that we will get the best of it and I will put into consolidation all discussions.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment