By KAYODE OYERO

Zamfara State governor, Bello Matawalle, says he finds it insulting for the ruling All Progressives Congress to accuse him of sponsoring bandits in his state.

The Zamfara State governor, who was elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2019, said the state was “a colony of banditry in the whole world” during the APC administration of his predecessor, Abdul’aziz Yari.

Matawalle, however, claimed that though insecurity has not totally been eliminated in Zamfara but terror attacks have drastically reduced in the state since he came into office.

In a string of tweets on Sunday night, Matawalle wrote, “I find it insulting that the APC is accusing me of sponsoring bandits in my own state. We all are living witnesses to the fact that during APC’s tenure, Zamfara State was adjudged as a colony of banditry in the whole world.

“We are not claiming that insecurity has totally been eliminated in Zamfara but it is on record that terror attacks have reduced drastically in the state in less than two years than APC’s unfortunate eight years when people were running away from the state.

“This is a malicious calumny by the ruling party, releasing a statement as sensitive as that, knowing fully how miserable they governed the state for the past years. Their statement is not only laughable but shows the type of leadership they have.”

The PUNCH had earlier reported that the APC accused an unnamed governor in North-West of sponsoring banditry in the region.

The APC’s statement last Thursday followed the abduction of over 300 schoolboys from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, by bandits who attacked the school on December 11, 2020.

“The All Progressives Congress has challenged security agencies to investigate an intelligence report linking a North-west governor to the heightened cases of banditry, abductions and other violent crimes in the zone,” APC Acting Deputy Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, had said in the statement.

The Kankara schoolboys were, however, freed at a forest in Zamfara after six days in their captors’ den. (Text, excluding headline, courtesy The PUNCH)

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