Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle has confirmed that he dialogued with bandits when he was governor of Zamfara state.
Explaining why he did so, Matawalle said he took the decision based on advice from residents of the state.
Matawalle, who was accused of sponsoring bandits, has denied the allegations.
In an interview on Channel TV’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, Matawalle revealed that he engaged several stakeholders who recommended dialogue with bandits as the best approach.
He said, “Yes I initiated the reconciliation dialogue. Of course, when I became the governor, I looked at the scenario, what is happening? Why are bandits killing people at present?
“So I was thinking the best way is to tackle the situation, so I’ve been getting a lot of advice from different centres which I ended up calling all stakeholders meeting at that time, I called the traditional rulers, the religious leaders, the security agency, the leader of the Fulani, the leader of the Asa clan.”
He continued, “I heard from each group differently. I didn’t combine them, so after we now finished the discussion. I now pack down the security agencies of the state.
“The security agency comprises the Army, police, DSS, immigration, civil defence, all of them. So we sat down together based on the recommendation we have from the people of the state, the traditional rulers. So from our recommendation, the best solution at the time was to have a dialogue with the bandits and it was a success.”
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