Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, says Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, should not be criticised for granting amnesty to repentant bandits.
Mohammed said state governors know how best to tackle security in their localities, adding that the Federal Government would not interfere.
The minister, speaking on Wednesday, said he doesn’t mind granting amnesty to criminals if that would bring about peace.
“When you are dealing with insurgency, kidnapping, banditry, you are interested in the bigger picture; how do we restore peace? If granting amnesty to one notorious kidnapper is going to give me peace in my state, I might take that decision. If granting amnesty to one repentant warlord would help me capture a thousand bandits, I might take that decision. Don’t just look at what is in the public place, understand the very high complexity of managing insurgency and banditry,” Mohammed said.
Matawalle recently granted amnesty to Auwalun Daudawa, a notorious bandit who led scores of his gang members to abduct over 300 schoolboys from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara last year.
“The governor of a state understands the dynamics of the state and takes decision but it will be unfair of us to criticise him (Matawalle) without knowing what he did and I want to believe the governors work together with the security forces in their own state, so, it is not as we think,” the minister added.
