Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle on Monday said it is not a sign of failure for anyone to negotiate with bandits.
Matawalle stated this while receiving some repentant bandits, who surrendered their weapons and embraced his administration’s peace deal, at the Government House in Gusau.
He said: “It is not a failure or thing of failure for someone to initiate dialogue. Nowhere in the world is succeeding without coming to the table to sit down and negotiate.
“Just for today, the weapons we have here show and indicate the successes we have recorded because leaving this kind of dangerous weapons in the bush can create a lot of havoc”
By bringing them to the security agencies, we have reduced their capacity and capability. Allowing these weapons to carry their weapons round to communities, cross-border to other states, that is what has made Nigeria be in the hot seat as of today.
The Commissioner of Police, Abutu Yaro, who was also at the event, commended the state government for the peace initiative.
Yaro noted that it is achieving the desired result.
He said: “This is an indication that the peace process is steadily moving and the message of peace is sinking into the population,” he said.
