Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal, on Friday, disclosed that he can’t reconcile with bandits who do not value human lives.
He explained that if the bandits across Zamfara refuse to change from their dastard acts, he’d fight them until they surrender.
Lawal disclosed this while reacting to a suggestion by a prominent Scholar, Sheik Umar Kanoma, in his sermon during the weekly Wa’azi organized by the state Ministry of Religious Affairs, that the state government should negotiate with the bandits to end banditry in the state.
Lawal said it would be a waste of time to negotiate with a set of people who neither value human lives nor keep their promise.
He said if the bandits were interested in negotiation, they should come out of the forest and surrender with all their weapons.
The governor said, “How can you reconcile with somebody who goes out to kill or kidnap people for the sake of money, and how do you think those people can be trusted to renounce banditry? If they want reconciliation, let them surrender their weapons and come out for negotiation. Without that, I still maintain my earlier promise of non-negotiation with them”
“Previous administrations in the state have conducted reconciliation process with bandits on so many occasions but did that process work? I repeat it, there is no reconciliation with somebody who does not value human lives, and if they have not changed from their dirty acts, I will pursue them and fight them until they give up.”
Lawal equally enjoined politicians in the state to stop playing politics with security, just as he urged residents to continue to pray for peace to return.
The governor also implored the former governors in the state to join hands with his administration so as to rescue the state from security challenges.
“I want to make a passionate appeal to all the former governors of the state to please come out and join hands with my administration so that we can rescue our state which has been groping in the dark due to security challenges,” he said
