Zamfara Key To Ending Banditry In North – Lawal

Zamfara State governor, Dauda Lawal has said the state has become the epicenter of the banditry crisis plaguing northern Nigeria, and resolving the insecurity there is crucial to bringing peace to the entire region.

He disclosed this to state house correspondents on Tuesday after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the presidential villa.

He painted a dire picture of the situation in his state saying despite efforts by Zamfara’s government, bandit attacks have continued unabated in several local government areas.

“Zamfara has become the center of banditry as we speak today, and if nothing is done in Zamfara State, I don’t think we will be able to solve the situation in the entire northern Nigeria,” Lawal said.

The governor said he appealed directly to Tinubu for a surge of military personnel and equipment to be deployed to Zamfara to tackle the security crisis head-on.

He expressed confidence that the president understood the urgency, saying “I have his assurance that something drastic will be done to take care of the situation as soon as possible.”

Lawal noted that most recent high-profile kidnapping cases, like the Kuriga school children abduction, have been found to trace back to Zamfara, where the victims were being held by their bandit captors.

He said this has underscored the need to change the “narratives” around insecurity in the state.

While Zamfara recently launched a Community Protection Guard force to work alongside federal troops, the governor acknowledged that as a state government, “we don’t have control over the military as well as the police”, hence, the imperative to secure federal backing and intervention.