Defence Minister Says Banditry Now an Industry in North West

Defence Minister of State Bello Maittawale has said that, armed banditry and kidnapping have emerged as a major industry in the North West Region.

Unlike the Niger Delta militants, he said the armed bandits in the North were criminals.

Mattawale, speaking in an interview said banditry has created its own economy, which is fueling crimes across the country.

Major participants in the banditry industry, according to him, include those supplying drugs, food, petrol, and other essentials to the bandits, as well as their informants.

The minister, who was the immediate Zamfara state governor, said conflict entrepreneurs do not want insecurity to end in Nigeria.

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But for his intervention when he as a Governor, Mattawale said the North would have been on fire.

He dismissed claims by Zamfara state governor that federal government was negotiating with armed bandits.

Some people are saying that the government is negotiating. What kind of negotiation? With whom and for what?

“They should come out and tell the world what kind of negotiation. In military operations, there is the kinetic and non-kinetic approach.

“In a non-kinetic approach, for example, the community has to be involved, just like what happened in the Niger Delta.

“I was in the House of Representatives when amnesty was granted to the Niger Delta militants, it was for them to stop carbon deregulation and other criminalities in the region.

“But if you look at bandits, what are they agitating for? Nothing. They are just normal criminals like armed robbers.

“But now, with what we have put in place through community reforms, we can fight these killers.”

Matawalle added that the bandits were not faceless, pointing out that people knew them.