No fewer than seven repentant bandits who had terrorized various parts of Zamfara swore with the Holy Qur’an to leave their criminal ways.
The oath, administered by Sheik Abubakar Fari was taken under the supervision of Gov. Bello Matawalle at the Government House, Gusau on Thursday.
The repentant bandits also surrendered a total of 14 AK47 guns and several ammunition and cartridges which were displayed to the governor at the event.
Two Islamic scholars, Abubakar Sodangi who commended the decision of the ex-bandits to repent, the peace and dialogue effort of the state government with the bandits, urged them to take the oath seriously by completely abandoning criminal ways.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Commissioner of Security and Home Affairs, Alhaji Abubakar Dauran informed the gathering that some of the repentant bandits hailed from Kaduna, Yobe and Niger states and had been operating in the bushes of Zamfara in the last three years but were now ready to return home as good citizens.
Dauran said, many former bandits had embraced the state government’s peace initiatives and had surrendered over 148 sophisticated weapons and thousands of assorted ammunition between June 2019 and January 2021.
Handing over the surrendered weapons to the Commissioner of Police in the state, Bello Matawalle said, “Today is one of the best days of my life, when bandits willingly repent and came along with their weapons to swear against their bad ways.
“I am aware that there is high level discussion carried out by the commissioner of security to make the state most peaceful in the country under our peace process effort,” he said.
Matawalle warned that those who fail to embrace peace wholly would be tackled through the kinetic ways of dealing with such situations and commended security operatives for maintaining peace in the state.
“Since the state government did not give them anything to seek their repentance, we are going to provide them with accommodation and get them something to do.
“They will be used by the security operatives to get more repentants in the bushes so that our people can continue to sleep with both eyes closed,” he said.
