Surrender your weapons, get free cows, gov pleads with bandits

Bello Matawalle, governor of Zamfara state, has offered armed bandits in the state two cows in exchange for each AK47 rifle surrendered.

He made the offer when he hosted Mohammed Adamu, the Inspector General of Police, Yusuf Bichi, Director General, Department of State Services (DSS), and other security heads, on Thursday.

The governor explained that he chose to offer cows because the bandits need the cows to advance their economic interests.

“For every rifle submitted by a repentant bandit, there would be compensation of two cows. We don’t want to give them money, so they wouldn’t use the money to purchase new weapons,” he said.

“We said we will compensate them with cows, they need the cows to advance their economic interest.

“We also told the repentant bandits that all “Dabas” (Camps) in the forests should be disbanded. We won’t accept a situation where the bandits will disarm and then go back to the  forest and be staying in these camps or Dabas

“We asked them to either come to town and be reintegrated into the society or be given economic empowerment where they are, so that they would start a new life.

“Most of them are residing in forests under the shades of trees and inside caves. That is why we came up with RUGA policy to help them.”

Zamfara is one of the states which has come under repeated attacks from bandits.