In fulfillment of Presidential order to crush armed banditry, Minister of State Defense Bello Matawalle in company of other service chiefs has arrived at Sokoto state on Tuesday.
Their arrival at Sultan Abubakar (III) International Airport, Sokoto marked the beginning of show of force in the Federal government’s bid to end the excesses of armed bandit criminalities in the North West geopolitical zone of the country.
It could be recall that, few days back, the popular bandit kingpin Bello Turji has released a video footage demonstrating how himself and his other gang members allegedly overpowered the operatives of the Nigerian army and carted away two military armored carrier vehicles.
Worried with the development, the Minister of State Defense Bello Matawalle released a statement that himself and all the service chiefs are to relocate to Sokoto to make sure that the excesses of armed bandits like Bello Turji will be brought to an end.
Stakeholders have been raising concern over the Federal government’s sincerity in fighting banditry hence ordinarily the Minister should have not made pronouncement of his plan relocation to Sokoto noting that, it will serve as an alarm rising for the bandits to relocate to another hideout.
Others believed that if the Minister is serious about his plan to end armed bandit brutality he should have moved to Zamfara not Sokoto because Turji and his allies are based along Zamfara forest.
There are also those who of the views that, the relocation of the Minister of State Defense to Sokoto is insignificant since he is not part of the “chain of command” as such his role is only policy coordination as they relate to security management.
Now all eyes are the defense team to prove to Nigerians how sincere is the Federal government in fighting armed bandits and bring an end to the Carnage’s already suffered by the people of the North West.
