Alhaji Mohammed Bello Matawalle is the Governor of Zamfara State. He came to power in 2019 carrying the symbolic umbrella of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state. His election benefited hugely from the self-destructive internal squabble of the immediate past All Progressives Congress (APC) state administration led by Abdulaziz Yari.
Barely two years after being in the saddle, Matawalle was reported to have picked up a broom and switched allegiance to the APC. But what did not change for him was the need to tackle the growing menaces of banditry, kidnapping and animal rustling in Zamfara and, by extension, the North West zone of Nigeria. In fact, the state is now described as the new epicentre of these criminal activities after Katsina wore that toga about two years back.
Recall that the state government once ordered the halting of livestock transportation beyond the state’s borders. It also closed all weekly markets and illegal motor parks in the state. Trucks and other vehicles conveying food items into the state were subjected to verification.
Following the incessant abduction of school children for ransom, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had early last month ordered a two week shutdown of all telecoms network services throughout Zamfara State. This was extended into its neighbouring 13 and 14 local council areas in Katsina and Sokoto States, respectively. Kaduna is another state that has adopted the networks shutdown measure. The idea was to cut off any communication between the criminals, especially as it relates to leakage of information on military movements, co-ordination of criminal attacks and escape plans.
Earlier, in March, the federal government had banned all mining activities and declared a no-fly zone over Zamfara as the Nigerian Air Force and ground troops launched a massive attack on bandits in the area which, according to Defence sources, forced most of the criminals to flee and scatter.
The NCC intervention was only the replay of a strategy used in 2013 when the military requested a suspension of telephone and telecoms services to enable them effectively engage Boko Haram terrorists in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States. But in spite of the effort, the insurgents are still holding sway in the North East, especially having been joined by jihadists from their affiliate Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
In any case, I want to believe that the North East experiment yielded positive results; hence the government’s acceptance of its replication elsewhere. It should not just result in forcing the criminals to continue to relocate from one locality or state to the other. Again, it is worrisome that the current state of the Nigerian economy is already taking people six feet down such that nothing in the form of these extreme measures should be contemplated in the first place, talk less of being allowed to last any longer than necessary.
Truth is that some citizens in these troubled areas are caught between dying in the hands of bandits and suffering the excruciating economic pains they are now being subjected to endure under the new emergency measures. For them, there is no communication with the outside world, medical help is far to reach, food supply dwindles, prices of items have tripled where and when such are available, no banking services, no schooling for children, and general restriction of movement.
From the foregoing, it would appear as though the government in Gusau was doing everything within its power to identify and root out bandits and other criminal elements in the state. It is against this backdrop that one found disturbing a recent news report which seemed to suggest that the Matawalle administration was not serious with exposing bandits and their sponsors in the North West state.
According to the report, it would soon be two years since a panel set up by the state government to investigate the activities of bandits, kidnappers and cattle rustlers in the state submitted its findings, yet the administration had been reluctant to raise a white paper on its recommendations and possibly prosecute those indicted.
The source said that the 279-page panel report had mentioned two former governors of the state, 10 military officers and 15 emirs as being culpable in the crimes. In other words, these individuals allegedly colluded with criminals to kidnap, collect ransom or even kill their victims.
The panel held that 6,319 persons were arbitrarily and willfully killed; 3,672 kidnapped; N2.8 billion paid as ransom; 6,483 widows and 25,050 orphans left behind by slain victims. It also stated that 215,241 cows, 1,487 motor vehicles and motorcycles burnt. The report went further to reveal that the bandits operated 105 camps from which they launched their deadly attacks.
So far, the only action the governor has been credited with regarding the implementation of the panel’s recommendations was his suspension of the traditional rulers of Maru, Dansadau and Zurmi in a broadcast to mark this year’s Democracy Day on June 12.
If the figures stated above were compiled about two years ago, then one can imagine what the statistics would look like today. It beats me as to why Matawalle would single out only three emirs for punishment and remain mute over the fate of the rest suspects in the report.
The governor’s apparent inaction can only mean that his administration will continue to chase shadows while churning out executive orders that leave the hapless residents of Zamfara suffering the more. The federal government cannot even be called upon to take up the matter because the authorities in Abuja are also guilty of kid-glove treatment of Boko Haram sponsors and collaborators.
While the bandits sack villages and massacre people in their tens and hundreds, our military successes have come in fits and starts; often in the form of neutralising two or three armed bandits and allowing for as many as twenty to escape.
With the damning nature of the Zamfara report, I still wonder why the other besieged states in the region have not set up similar investigative panels. Surely, Matawalle needs to lead them on by carrying out full implementation of his panel’s recommendations.

By: Ibelema Jumbo