Following the heightened security situation in Northwest Nigeria that has continued unabated, Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara state says foreigners now exchange gold with arms and other precious resources. The Governor stated this yesterday while answering questions from the statehouse reporters after presenting some gold bars and other precious mineral mined in his state to President Buhari at the Presidential villa. In his statement, “It’s very important to us as a government, particularly, the issue of insecurity, to know the root cause of insecurity. Zamfara state is blessed with many mineral resources and some people outside the country come in to buy gold and other precious stones and sometimes instead of paying people, they pay back with arms.
According to him, after conducting some investigation, he concluded that the state government has concluded plan to be buying these minerals to frustrate the chain of arms supply.
He revealed that is why his administration is keying into Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Develop Initiative to be on top of the game rather than allowing the cartel to hijack the whole process.
Matawalle said since the state government has swung into action and has commenced buying some of this gold from the miners while expressing his worries over the activities of illegal miners.
While commenting on the security situation in his state, the governor said the narration has changed as the government forces are on top of the situation.
However, opposed the call by some quarters to sack the service chiefs, saying what the service chief requires is our collective support from all stakeholders.
His statement reads; “The narration has changed. You won’t be hearing of mass killings in the state because the security agencies are doing their best. I equally advised the president that those that are calling for the sack of the service chiefs is not the solution. Let’s support the security, we as the governors; we have a big role to play. We just have to support the security agencies.
“If the governors are not serious, they can’t be able to achieve what they want. I advised the president that all those calling for the sack of the security chiefs; they should think of the best way to support them to perform better instead of sacking them, even if you sack them, you’re bringing another one. So, let us use the one that we have. We’ll support them as a government.
“My state now is at peace and everybody is aware. We’ve more than 3000 policemen going around the mining sites in order to protect the mining site. We’ve the security. It’s just for us as leaders to support them. I believe we’ll see a lot of changes in terms of security in this country.”
