Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle has sounded the alarm on the level of criminality in the state.
Matawalle attributed the escalation of banditry and kidnapping in the state to unresolved lingering conflict between herders and farmers by past administrations.
Matawalle also said that the failure of some states in the Northwest region to enter into dialogue with the bandits had further led to the degeneration of the menace.
The governor identified the killing of a prominent Fulani leader in Dansadau as another factor responsible for the escalation of banditry in the state.
He said that followers of the slain Fulani leader in Zamfara, Kebbi, and Sokoto states became aggrieved and started attacking perceived killers of their leader to avenge his death.
This, according to him, subsequently led to hostilities between the Fulani and Hausa communities, with each group attacking and killing one another.
The State Commissioner-
designate, Ibrahim Dosara state these on behalf of the governor, during a Security conference in Kaduna State.
Matawalle said the herder- farmers’ conflicts lingered for too long due to the weakening of the traditional institution and the judiciary in resolving the problem or prosecuting offenders.
He noted that the inability of the government to resolve the conflict consequently made some of the actors involved to devise some other means of tackling the problem, which sadly resulted in banditry within Zamfara.
Other contributory factors that escalated banditry in Zamfara state according to the Commissioner, included the proliferation of arms into the Northwest region through the porous borders from some African countries like Mali, Libya, and Chad.
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