Again, the governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, is in the news, this time for promulgating a new set of measures to combat insecurity across the state. He recently signed the “Prohibition and Punishment for Banditry, Cattle Rustling, Cultism, Kidnapping and Other Incidental Offences, 2022” into law; prescribing death penalty on anyone found guilty of banditry, cattle rustling, cultism, ojjmmj65,µr serving as bandits’ informant. This law which provides a legal instrument for prosecuting banditry-related offenders was announced in a state-wide broadcast on Tuesday August 16, 2022.
The governor also said anyone found guilty of supporting the aforementioned offences in any manner shall receive a sentence of either life imprisonment, 20 years jail term, or 10 years imprisonment without an option of fine. The governor affirmed that the measures were part of his administration’s unrelenting efforts at tackling the problem of banditry that had plagued the state and the neighbouring North West states for over a decade. He further directed the task force on security to embark on house-to-house search to flush out criminal elements in the 19 emirates of the state; urging the emirs to report suspicious persons or strange movements in their respective domains to security agents.
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Other security measures announced by Governor Matawalle include a restriction on motorcycle movement in the communities on the outskirts of Gusau from 9pm till dawn. He further ordered security agents to shoot at sight any motorcycle rider who violates the order and refuses to stop at security check-points within the affected areas. He said there were reports of the use of motorcycles by bandits and other criminal elements to perpetrate their criminal activities within the state capital and its environs. The governor also ordered hotel operators to scrutinise their guests by means of valid identification before accommodating them. “Any hotelier found violating the new order shall have his hotel shut down and face prosecution according to the law,” he warned.
It would be recalled that the Zamfara State House of Assembly had, on Monday June 28, 2022, passed the bill that was, last week, signed into law by Governor Matawalle. Following the passage of the bill at that time, the Zamfara State government in an official statement issued on June 26, 2022 asked residents of the state to arm themselves against bandits. This was in addition to the immediate recruitment of additional 200 Community Protection Guards (CPG) in each emirate in the state. The Commissioner for Information, Ibrahim Dosara, said the state government was ready to facilitate the issuance of licences that will permit residents, especially farmers, to carry guns for self-defence. Daily Trust had, on this page, cautioned Matawalle against the dangerous implications of that directive.
The frequent introduction of a series of security measures by the Zamfara state government only illustrates how all the challenges of insecurity in the state including kidnapping and banditry have refused to surrender to the supposed potencies of such measures. It could be that the measures, too, have failed to serve the purposes for which they were proclaimed. Each set of measures speak of the prolonged frustrations being suffered by the state government in its efforts to secure residents from the heinous activities of criminal elements. Nearly all the attempts by Governor Matawalle to fight insecurity including peace deals, payment of huge ransoms, suspension of telecommunication services, and shutting down of petrol filling stations as well as markets over a long period all failed to yield the expected result. Yet, the situation only continues to worsen and the attacks heightened further on a steady pattern. Suffering so many and too frequent attacks, Zamfara State remains the worst hit by insecurity in the country’s North West region.
The death penalty prescribed for banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling, cultism and other incidental crimes is a welcome development. Indeed, this law ought to have come long ago. But given the characteristic excesses among security agencies, especially the Nigeria Police, we express some reservations about the shoot-a-sight order. While we urge the Zamfara State government to rethink this section of the law, we encourage police authorities to remind the rank and file of the Force to rather, in their implementation of the law, apprehend suspects with reasonable force.
The experience from similar laws in the past suggests that implementation, not the enactment of capital punishment, has always been the biggest problem. Custodial centres across the country are currently crowded with convicts awaiting execution, because governors have refused to sign their death warrant or convert such into life sentences. Their fate keeps remaining in the balance, sometimes, for as long as decades after the case has been decided by the presiding judge. Unless Matawalle ‘walks his talk’, Nigerians would sooner or later be vindicated that the provisions of the new law are no more than an empty riot act.
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