Zamfara Govt. replies online report, says state is not supporting bandits

The Zamfara Government has denied an online media report that it  gave Hilux trucks to “repentant bandits’’ in the state.

Addressing journalists in his office on Tuesday, the state Commissioner for Security and Home Affairs, Alhaji Abubakar Dauran, described the report as “unfounded’’.

“This is certainly untrue, a fabrication of the writer and an unfounded statement meant to smear the effort of Gov. Bello Matawalle and the effort of his administration in handling security issues in the state.

“You know it will look foolish to any right-thinking mind to say that the government that recently purchased and donated 200 Hilux vans to ease the operations of security agencies in the state will also give vehicles to bandits under whatever guise of the arrangement,” the commissioner pointed out.

He said that the discreet investigation carried out by the state government showed that the false report did not emanate from any of the security agencies operating in the state, as contained in the online media report.

An online media platform on Tuesday released a report alleging that the Zamfara government gave three vehicles to repentant bandits which they now use to perpetrate crimes, thereby betraying the peace accord which they entered with the government.

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The allegation came on the heels of a Monday morning attack on the Janbako community in the Maradun Local Government Area where about 10 people were killed.

Similarly, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Mr. Zailani Bappa, while reacting to the online publication,  described it as “careless, quackery and sheer mischief without balance’’.