25th December 2020
The maiden media briefing by the newly deployed State Commissioner of Police CP. Abutu Yaro has rekindled the hope of thousands of Zamfara citizens who have been faced with years of criminal activities especially armed banditry and now abduction.
The Police Commissioner has uttered a lot of renewed commitment and promises that if strictly implemented would ordinarily pave the way for minimizing social crises and bring stability in the state.
But the CP need to understand that, the journey ahead of him is a tasking one especially with the hostility of the policing environment which was ravaged by activities of cattle rustlers, armed bandits and kidnappers.
Added with all these, is the politicization of the security environment especially between the ruling PDP and opposition APC in the state.
The former CP had suffered a high level of hostility from the opposition who accused him of partisanship and lack of concern to the plight of the opposition.
They have at different fora wrote to register their concern on what they term as“deliberate frustration of the opposition” and went to an extent of staging a peaceful demonstration to tell the entire world what they are undergoing.
The ruling party on the other hand were fully behind the Police Commissioner for what they termed as “his ability to restore peace and champion the peace dialogue between the state government and the bandits in the forest”.
The former gubernatorial candidate of APGA Sani Abdullahi Wamban Shinkafi had for instance during one of the media conference in Gusau two months back had accused the opposition All Progressive Congress of opposing every step taken by the former CP because of the achievements he has recorded in terms of minimizing banditry and terrorism in the State through his lead initiative of peace dialogue.
The new CP needs to be reminded of the recent national face-off between Zamfara State Government and opposition All Progressive Congress over their allegation that the Zamfara Governor is aiding banditry in the North West geopolitical zone.
This they justified through his initiative of dialogue which led to the release of the abducted students of science secondary school Kankara.
This has attracted the attention of both national and international media outfits who tried to make the whole situation a national issue of concern.
In addition to the emerging issues that have to do with the resurgence of some pockets of crises especially kidnapping in some part of the state especially Dansadau axis, Mafara, Kaura Namoda and few other places.
Just last week the member repressing Maru North Yusuf Alhassan Kanoma told journalists in an interview that security agencies are not fully supporting the effort of the Governor in ending the armed bandits activities in the state.
He confirmed that, up to now there are eighteen persons amongst those kidnapped at Jumuat prayer mosque along Kanoma area who are still in the custody of the abductors.
The former CP Usman Nagogo has been at the helm of chairing the dialogue between the armed bandits and state government before his redeployment out of Zamfara State.
Now the critical question is, will CP Abutu Yaro continue to head the dialogue team? Or in alternative is he going to abandon the peace dialogue and face the bandits squarely?
This question would be determined by time hence, the major fear of the public is that the peace dialogue often embarked by the present administration which the former CP was heading has never being contextualized.
Many wonders where the new CP will start if he is to continue leading the dialogue hence there may be no documented evidences and statistics to provide a sense of direction on where it started, where it is stopped, and where the new CP is to start.
The recent attack on garangi village in Mayanchi on Thursday has raised a palpable fear that all is not well hence the bandits invaded the village killed scores of people and push dozens out of their homes.
Youths in their hundreds on Friday took to the street to protest the frequent killings and abduction of their relations by the armed bandits who have been terrorizing them for long.
In the final note the Police Commissioner needed to restrategize and work hand in hand with stakeholders in order to build from where his predecessor Usman Nagogo stopped.
Looking at the CV and credentials of the new CP added with his history from some places where he worked, it is evident that he has the requisite experience to bring a lot of reforms and stabilize the security situation of the state.
Zamfara people are optimistic that the new CP will work harder to win their confidence by restoring peace in the state.
