Governor Bello Matawalle

By Uzair Adam Imam

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdurrashid Bawa, and Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara state continue to trade words over corruption allegations.

The anti-graft agency chairman challenged Matawalle to expose him if he has any fraud record against him.

Bawa has thrown this challenge against Matawalle in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service on Thursday.

He added that even though no human being was 100 percent clean, he would love it if Matawalle could expose him.

The Daily Reality reported that Matawalle was currently under investigation over alleged N70 billion fraud.

The EFCC chairman stated that it was intriguing that Matawalle would want to take on the role of a supervisor, who tells the EFCC whom to investigate.

By Uzair Adam Imam

The All Progressive Congress (APC) in Zamfara said the state government did not shut down media houses but only sealed them for breaking the law. 

The APC Publicity Secretary in the state, Yusuf Idris, clarified this on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily, saying the affected media houses collaborated with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to break the law.

The Daily Reality recalls that Zamfara State Government, through the announcement by its Information Commissioner, Ibrahim Dosara, ordered the immediate shutdown of the affected media houses.  

Since he announced the order, trials have continued to knock the state government over the closure of the broadcast stations in the state.  

Justifying the move, Idris said, “The information reaching you out there is incorrect. What I read from the government is that it sealed the media (houses), not shut down. 

“The government doesn’t have the right to shut down, it only sealed; no going in, no going out. Shutting down means they are not going to operate and cancelling their licenses; this is the responsibility of NBC.”

By Uzair Adam Imam

There has been tension among journalists in Zamfara as the state government shuts down all the federal and private media houses for covering political rally of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The state’s Commissioner of Information, Ibrahim Magaji Dosara, in a statement made available to journalists, disclosed on Saturday.

Dosara said the state governor, Bello Muhammad Matawalle, also directed the State Commissioner of Police to arrest all pressmen that attended the event.

The Daily Reality gathered that the event was organized by the PDP governorship candidate, Dr. Dauda Lawal Dare.

Several reports indicated that Matawalle earlier announced a suspension of all political activities in the state over the resurgence of insecurity.

However, the PDP went ahead with its inaugural rally which enjoyed media coverage by the affected media.

Radio Nigeria Pride FM Gusau, NTA Gusau, Gamji Television, Vision FM, Al’Umma TV are among the media affected by the order.

By Uzair Adam Imam

Several reports from Zamfara State have indicated that the remains of a notorious bandits warlord, Bello Turji, was not among the 37 terrorists naturalised by the Nigerian Air Force on Saturday, September 17, 2022.

The Daily Reality recalls that the military personnel have bombed the bandits’ hideout. Although Turji escaped, he was reported to have been badly injured while 37 of his loyalists were killed.

Turji is an infamous bandits’ warlord that controls a large gang. He has been leading attacks in Zamfara and some other parts of the northwestern part of the country.

Zamfara is one of the epicentres of the insurgence of banditry and kidnapping. The development has thrown many of the residents into hardship and affected businesses and many other activities in the state.

Governor Bello Matawalle of the state had asked residents to take up arms and defend themselves in his effort to end the rising insecurity and attacks in the state.

The Governor was also reported to have raised community protection guards, which he empowered with over 7000 guns. However, the attacks continue.

By Uzair Adam Imam

Over 75 secondary schools in Zambara State were closed due to the menacing security challenges bedevilling the area over the years.

A permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Alhaji Kabiru Attahiru, made the disclosure Saturday in Gusau while reading a goodwill message during a two-day meeting.

It was gathered that the meeting was held to sensitise the National Policy on Gender in Education (NPGE) and was organised by the state’s Universal Basic Education Board in partnership with UNICEF.

He stated that the schools had been closed since September 2021 following attacks on two girls’ schools in the state.

He added that the state government is working very hard to ensure the reopening of the schools that were shut down due to threats by bandits.

Zamfara has become the epicentre of banditry and kidnapping, the development that widowed many and orphaned thousands of kids.

By Mallam Musbahu Magayaki

The Zamfara State Government has officially directed the inhabited communities of the state to carry arms for self-defence as a result of the insurmountable bandit’s attack shattering the state, leading to the destruction of lives and personal possessions of the zone’s commoners. This action, however, would add fuel to the sad development unfolding in the state and beyond by potentially making it unmanageable because everyone would have a gun to protect himself from these foreboding omens. This defensive stance would lead to an offensive.

The government should therefore be conscious that the Ukraine war, which induced President Volodymyr Zelensky to ring up civilians to take up arms in defence of Russia’s invasion of their state, was the result of Russia’s military outmatching Ukraine’s on every level. This implies that the Ukrainian military may be unable to withstand and deter a full-scale invasion.

Mexico should be a case of study as it became a precedent in the past that was destabilised by its innermost citizens when they were constitutionally allowed to hold weapons for self-defence. As such, we need to be thoroughly observing the situations in those developed countries and be capable of identifying those areas where they erred so that we would avoid repeating what they did.

Although Nigeria is one of the biggest African countries with military power, the one million dollar questions are: is our military number insufficient to strike back against these outlaws’ threat? Or are they not functioning effectively in this hazardous assignment? This action would seriously make the efforts of our brave military less appreciative as, in reality, they have been audaciously doing their best to safeguard our lives and properties day-in-day-out.

In a country like Nigeria, where a breach of law has prevalently become the norm, what can be expected to happen devastatingly if a citizen takes up arms? This is a wrong decision that should be changed to a better option. Moreover, what is the essence of creating various security units in the country if they cannot be utilised to defeat those terrorising the country?

Instead of coming up with this irrational idea, why not engage the state vigilantes, empower them with advanced sophisticated weaponry, and train them with military tactics to strengthen our military capacity? Zamfara government should, head over heels, request support from the Federal Government in employing more civilians for this vigilante unit in different angles of the state to fight these law violators.

Simply put, the government has shown its ineptitude in the fight against terrorism. Nonetheless, Borno State has faced more challenges from Boko Haram militias than Zamfara State, but its governor has never come up with the wrong notion of state dwellers carrying arms.

Mallam Musbahu Magayaki wrote from Sabon Fegi, Azare, Bauchi State via musbahumuhammad258@gmail.com.

By Muhammad Sabiu

Reports coming from Gusau have it that Mahdi Aliyu Gusau, the state’s deputy governor, has been impeached by the Zamfara State House of Assembly.

The members ousted Mr Gusau from office on Wednesday during plenary after 20 out of 21 voted in favour of his removal.

Following the submission of a panel report by the state’s chief judge, Kulu Aliyu, to investigate alleged impeachable offences against the deputy governor, the parliamentarians quickly voted.

By Suleman Ahmad Tudu

One of the immediate decisions of Gov Bello Matawalle’s administration was disbanding the vigilante group popularly known as Yan Sa Kai as one of the conditions for dialogue with bandits in his efforts to bring a solution to the decade of bloodshed in Zamfara state. The dialogue has recorded some early successes in almost a year of its initiation.

Unfortunately, despite being given this ample opportunity for the bandits to completely lay down their arms and embrace a lasting peace, some of them refused to subscribe to the dialogue. They continue launching and intensifying their deadly attacks on communities—killing, kidnapping and rapping women unabated, taking advantage of the vacuum created by disbanding their sworn enemies, the Yan Sa Kai.

Some negative implications of disbanding the Yan Sa Kai are that many communities that gallantly resisted bandits before the disbandment have now submitted to them. Palaces that were no-go-areas to bandits before have now become accessible to them. As a result, the morale of many vigilante members has been killed. The bandits have also taken advantage of the dialogue to deceive the government and get many resources. They kidnap many people, including school children, for ransom to procure more arms.

But we can honestly understand the justifications behind the disbandment of Yan Sa Kai in the first place as a sine qua non for dialogue to thrive. The activities of this group have fuelled the crisis for their jungle justices—extrajudicial killings and ethnic profiling of criminals. All Fulanis are bandits to the Yan Sa Kai, which is wrong!

Now that Gov Matawalle has reversed his decision to reactivate the Yan Sa Kai in the fight against terrorism (banditry), which is very good, there is a need for a caution in the recruitment, administration, and operations of the about to be born-again group. We need Yan Sa Kai guided by rules of engagements, monitored by security forces and coordinated by established authority. We need Yan Sa Kai with some basic military training and improved weaponry, not the locally fabricated, non-cartridge guns, bow and arrows that cannot match the arsenal of the terrorists.

Achieving this requires efficiency right from the recruitment process. Government should not simply dust off the list of the previous members without scrutiny to fish out those whose morale has been killed or no longer believe in the course of the group. Liaising with traditional institutions will be an effective way only if those who have cases to answer are side-lined in the process. Government should also not mistake recruiting members of the born-again vigilante group from the communities that were adjudged to have wholly submitted to bandits before or during the dialogue initiative. These measures could help avoid enlisting bad eggs who would compromise or sabotage the group’s activities.

Training of the carefully selected and thoroughly profiled members of the group will go a long way in shaping their mindsets and inculcating in them the rules of engagements, discipline, command, control and coordination. It will also mend their relationship with the security forces with which they should work together as a team. This can be possible within at least a month of rigorous training.

Granted that Yan Sa Kai knows the bandits, their collaborators and hideouts better than the security forces, yet storming weekly markets in the name of hunting bandits or their collaborators is a flawed strategy that has to be changed. They used to carry extrajudicial killings during such operations that sometimes affect innocent people. This time around, the group’s approach should be offensive by jointly reaching out to the bandits’ enclaves together with security forces now and then. And if the group has to defend and hunt, the defence should be restricted to every member’s immediate community while the hunt should be on the checkpoints to be placed in strategic places. 

While NO suspect deserves to be (extrajudicially) killed but arrested and prosecuted accordingly, I can command that any civilian seen wielding an AK-47 rifle should be “shot at sight” as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari!

May Allah grant us everlasting peace in Zamfara and Nigeria at large. Amin.

Suleman Ahmad Tudu wrote from Nasarawa Mailayi of Birnin Magaji local government, Zamfara state. He could be reached via suleatudu@gmail.com.

By Muhammad Abdurrahman

About fifty-eight (58) people were reported killed in an attack by terrorists in Zamfara State on Tuesday, January 4, 2022. Meanwhile, an Islamic human rights organisation, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has sent a message of condolence to the state governor, Bello Muhammad Matawalle.           

In the condolence message made available to journalists on Monday, January 10, 2022, Professor Ishaq Akintola, MURIC’s director, described the killings as callous, disheartening, horrific and barbaric.

The message reads:

“About fifty-eight (58) people were reported killed in a three-day reprisal attack by terrorists in Zamfara State which began on Tuesday, 4th January 2022 and lasted till Thursday. 6th January 2022. About 300 terrorists on motorcycles stormed eight villages in the Anka Local Government Area of the state on Tuesday and another ten villages in the Bukkuyum district on Wednesday and Thursday. They killed at random.

“We strongly condemn these killings. They are callous, cowardly, disheartening, horrific and barbaric. We call on the security agencies to leave no stone unturned in apprehending the perpetrators. They must be held accountable. People who turn children, wives and husbands into orphans, widows and widowers respectively overnight are heartless beasts. They deserve no mercy.

“The killings are believed to be reprisal attacks carried out in revenge for terrorists killed during air raids by the Nigerian military fighter jets last week. The air raids reportedly killed some leaders of the terrorist groups as well as tens of their foot soldiers.

“This killing of unarmed civilians should not discourage the military. It merely shows that the bandits are feeling the pressure. We call for more pounding from the air. Terrorists must have no place to hide. They must be hounded from pillar to post until they all surrender or they are totally eliminated. Nigeria will not be defeated by sadistic renegades, rebellious subjects and enemies of peace.

“MURIC commiserates with the governor of Zamfara State, Bello Muhammad Matawalle, over the horrific killings. We also condole with members of the state executive, the traditional rulers and the good people of the state. Our hearts bleed for the bereaved families. May Allah have mercy on the direct victims and give their families the fortitude to bear the losses.”

By Sumayyah Auwal Ishaq

The Government of Zamfara State has directed for the restoration of telecommunications services within the state capital of Gusau with effect from today, Friday, 1st October, 2021.

According to the State Governor’s Special Adviser on Public Enlightenment, Media and Communications, Mr. Zailani Bappa, the restoration of the service at the state capital becomes imperative following the tremendous success recorded in the fight against banditry in the state and to ease the hardship faced by both the private and public sectors of the state.

Mr. Bappa further stated that the “Government finds it necessary to ease the tight measure after the recorded success desired of it which has no doubt destabilised the syndicate of criminals terrorising the state leading to the successes recorded against them by the security operatives”