Governor Matawalle explains his controversial decision to dialogue with bandits, highlighting the reasons behind this approach to addressing insecurity.
Bello Matawalle, the minister of state for defense, has clarified that the advice of the people living in Zamfara State affected his choice to hold talks with bandits while serving as the state’s governor.
Accusations that Matawalle supported bandits have been refuted.
In a Tuesday interview with Channel TV’s Sunrise Daily, Matawalle disclosed that he spoke with a number of stakeholders, who suggested that the best course of action be to have a conversation with robbers.
“Yes, I started the reconciliation dialogue,” he declared. Naturally, as soon as I was elected governor, I examined the situation to see what was going on. Why are robbers murdering people these days?
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“I decided that the best course of action would be to address the situation, so I sought advice from a variety of sources and called a meeting of all relevant parties at that time. I called the security agency, the Fulani leader, the Asa clan leader, and the traditional rulers.”
“I heard differently from each group,” he went on. Since I did not combine them, the conversation has now come to an end. I now disband the state’s security services.
“All of them—the Army, police, DSS, immigration, and civil defense—are part of the security agency. As a result, we assembled based on the advice provided by the state’s populace, or the traditional authorities. Thus, based on our advice, talking to the robbers was the wisest course of action at the moment, and it was successful.
