Dansadau seeks emergency rule in Zamfara over killings

An elder statesman in Zamfara State, Senator Saidu Dansadau, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency in Zamfara State over mass killing by cattle rustlers.
Dansadau in a letter to the president which was copied to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, said over 360 people had been killed  in Dansadau Constituency of the State alone.
Reading the letter to newsmen in Abuja yesterday, he said the insecurity situation in the state was compounded by incessant trips outside the state and abroad by Governor  Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar.
“In Dansadau constituency alone, about 360 have been killed. If the killings in the remaining 23 constituencies in the state are added, the total number of lives lost can better be imagined. All these losses would have been averted if the governor was alive to his constitutional responsibilities,” he said.
He said the ruthless killing of indigenes by cattle rustlers had resulted in a total breakdown of law and order in the state.
He said the new strategy of rustlers/criminals in Zamfara was to impose levies on villages to avoid attack.
“The levies range from N200,000 to Nl,500,000. The imposition of these levies to eschew attack has become recurring, with villages paying to save themselves. When any village fails to pay, the threat of attack is inevitably carried into execution,” he said.
He urged President Buhari to declare a state of emergency in the state, saying: “Anything short of this will turn the thick forest between the southern border of Zamfara State with Katsina, Kaduna, Niger and Kebbi States into a national park of criminals and killers, worse than what the nation has seen in Sambisa Forest.” 
Reacting, the Zamfara State Commissioner for Information, Umar Jibo, said: “The efforts of the state and federal governments have been yielding positive results and this is why we have not recorded any major case of cattle rustling in our state in recent time.  He is making the noise because of his personal needs.
“Go to Dansadau where he comes from, you will see people going about their normal activities. Ask him, when last did he visit his village?  He is an Abuja based elder statesman. Where was he when hundreds of cattle were recovered from the rustlers?  Or where was he when the cattle rustlers were paraded at the Zamfara State police headquarters?,“he said.
He added: “The governor is on 30 days vacation and it was duly approved by the state House of Assembly. The Deputy Governor is acting accordingly. As you know, our Governor is the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, so he has to travel to champion the course of the forum.”