We secured release of 300 from bandits without ransom – Gov Matawalle

The Zamfara State Governor, Dr. Bello Muhammad Matawalle, has said that the state government had secured the release of 300 captives from bandits operating in the state without paying ransoms.

He said this on Saturday night in Abuja during the signing of a $1bn Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the state and the African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) for mining, agriculture, water resources and other infrastructural developments in the state.

“Zamfara State had so many issues before my emergence as the governor, within just a month; God helped us to tackle some of these issues.

“Today, we can call Zamfara State as a peaceful state in Nigeria. For your information, for the first time in four weeks, there has been no report of any incident like kidnapping or killing of citizens.

“Our administration is committed to giving a full secured state and we have started that by engaging the bandits in peace, which they have accepted to lay down their arms.

“As at today, we have secured the release of over 300 people that are under captivity. The securing of the release of these people was done without any commitment; no single kobo or ransom was paid to the bandits. So we assure you that Zamfara State is safe for investors,” Matawalle said.

President of Cairo based bank, Prof. Benedict Okey Oramah, said the investments will cut across manufacturing, power, mining and agricultural sectors in the state for the purposes of opening it up for the required development as against poverty-driven violence.

“We also discussed resources partnership in the area of agriculture and water to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities presented by the system in Zamfara State, not only to generate electricity but also for Agriculture,” Oramah said.