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The pronouncement by the Governor of Zamfara state Bello Muhammad Matawalle on Saturday where he promised to restore back telecommunication network in all the (13) local government areas of the state by Tuesday has been received with high sense of celebration by the citizens especially considering the impacts of the shutdown strategy on the people of the rural communities that are affected.

While people patiently waited for the fulfilment of that promised their hope was dashed when up to today (Friday) the (13) local government areas remain shutdown without much reasons advanced by the government.

Not until yesterday night when the state Commissioner for Information Ibrahim Dosara released a statement explaining reasons for the non reopening of the network citizens of Zamfara took to the media to expressed mixed opinions as regard to the sincerity of the government in it’s own pronouncement.

BELOW IS THE STATEMENT BY ZAMFARA INFORMATION COMMISSIONER

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This  is to notify the general public that following the directives by His Excellency the Governor Bello Matawalle Maradun to restore all networks of telecommunications services, the directive is on course.

The attention of the general public is therefore hereby drawn to  the processes involved in the restoration of the telecommunications networks.

These include the legal procedure of drafiting and signing of the executive order permitting the restoration, the survey of the current security situation in each of the 14 local government areas to ascertain the type of arrangements to be put in place after the restoration of the telecommunications networks,

The request for the restoration from the Minister of Communications and NCC which must be nacked up with the security reports and other bureaucratic procedures involved.

The government therefore pleads with the good and law abiding people of the state to exercise more patience, as all the processes are on course.

The Attorney General and Commissioner for justice has given  the assurance that the executive order is almost completed and will soon be forwarded  to His Excellency for signing.

In the same vein, security situation reports from various communities and local government areas are being compiled for onward submission to the Honourable minister of Communications and digital economy along with our letter of request.

But this medium has compiled some public opinions as regard to the effect of the new development as pointed by the Information commissioner against the backdrop of the governor’s pronouncement.

THE STATEMENT BY ZAMFARA INFORMATION COMMISSIONER DOSARA EXPOSES THE WEAKNESSES OF THE MATAWALLE GOVERNMENT.

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A legal practitioner, Barr. Bello Idris Galadi has declared that the statement of Ibrahim Dosara the Commissioner for information regarding the opening of the telecommunication network has further exposed the weaknesses of the Matawalle government.

He said, by virtue of the statement released by Dosara this morning, the Governor should have waited until all the procedures and conditions are fulfilled before going to the public to make the pronouncement.

“The Governor should have done what is necessary before going to the public to make such pronouncement because what Dosara has released today has further told us that the Governor does his things without proper consultation”.

Regarding the pledged made by the Governor of opening telecommunication network by Monday or Tuesday, Galadi said it is unfortunate that, the Governor has made a statement which turned out to be not true.

He added that, it should be good for a leader to make statement which the people would take with high degree of confidence and not the other way around.

“When a leader issued a statement without wider consultation he is bound to get things wrong” Galadi added.

“What differentiate the Governor with people like us the (citizens) he has around him people of vast experience who are meant to advise him on the proper thing to do, and he cannot consult them for guide then there is problem”

Regarding the impacts of communication shutdown, Galadi said to the citizens, the impact is less to reckoned with because there have been continued recorded cases of attacks and kidnapping in the state.

“No matter what was recorded in terms of successes, we may not know because the government has not been communicating to us regarding what is happening in terms of fighting the armed bandit activities.

THE INTEGRITY OF GOV. BELLO MATAWALLE AND HIS GOVT IS AT STAKE.

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The Zamfara State Coordinator of National Human Right Commission Mr. Abdallah said the integrity of Governor Bello Matawalle and that of his government is at stake since he has been making statements that are not seeing the light of the day.

He said it was unfortunate that the Governor promised to open the network telecommunication by Monday or Tuesday but up to today Thursday the network has not been restored.

He added that, when Tambuwal visited Goronyo after the massacre of his citizens he instantly made pronouncement and the NCC complied by opening the telecommunication in all the affected local governments asking why Zamfara is different from Sokoto?.

“If you look over the social media for the past two days people have been criticizing the Governor and his government for not fulfilling his pronouncement”.

Regarding the successes of telecommunication network, Abdallah wondered how people from the government would keep telling Zamfara citizens that successes have been recorded when people are being attacked on the daily basis.

“Even yesterday they have blocked Shinkafi road three times, and we have evidences with pictures and last night they have attacked several communities in various parts of Zamfara state”.

“I have told you few days back I slept at Yankara when the bandits blocked the road and the police along the border have to be relying on the commuters to be accessing information because there is no network to communicate”.

He called on Governor Bello Matawalle to immediately ordered for the reopening of the network as promised by him on Saturday so that people can have access to communicate for help whenever they are attacked.

GOV. MATAWALLE MAY BE RIGHT FOR REFUSING TO TALK OVER NON-REOPENING OF TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORK.

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A legal practitioner in Zamfara Barr. Abdullahi Ma’aji has declared that Governor Bello Matawalle may be right for not talking to Zamfara people on the reason for non re-opening of the network in other local government areas of zamfara State.

The legal practitioner further said there are certain executive decisions that the Governor may make pronouncement over, but due to some emerging issues they may not happen as planned and the reason may not necessarily be made public.

 Ma’aji further stated,  “as human we need to be fair to him because we all don’t know the prevailing circumstance that might occur after the Saturday’s pronouncement”.

Similarly On the successes recorded since the shutdown of the network, Ma’aji said, the measures recorded about 65%successes even though he expected up to between 70% to 80%.

He emphasized that even if not for anything the crippling of the power of the informants is a good achievement because for now, they don’t have access to the network that they can speak to the bandits in the forest.

“We all know the danger of strategic places like Garejin Mai Laina, Lalan and other places’ shutdown by the government of Zamfara, and we knew how informants take advantage of the nature of these places to cause serious problem for the innocent people”.

MATAWALLE IS RUNNING HIS GOVT ON “TRIAL AND ERROR”

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A chieftain of All Progressive Congress in Zamfara belonging to the camp of Abdulazeez Yari and former Commissioner Ahmad Abubakar Maradun has declared that the excuse advanced by the state government for not opening the network as scheduled is a clear indication that the Governor is running his government on “trial and error”.

Maradun said, from their own perception of the Governor’s decision to shutdown telecommunication network is just to ensure that, he has blocked people from reporting what is actually happening in the state through the social media platforms especially on the conduct of what he termed as “Kangaroo congress”.

He further said, the Governor had wanted to take advantage of the shutdown of  the network to intimidate the opposition without them having access to making public outcry.

He argued that even during the recent congress they have conducted, they intended to use force against Sen. Marafa faction of the APC especially in the local government areas where there is no network but the Marafa supporters outsmarted them and resisted any attempt to force them to go chaotic.

Maradun further said, the recent back-tracking on the government pronouncement to open the telecommunication network is only exposing the “political incompetency” of the Matawalle government since the government could not prove on fact the number of armed bandit base it has bombarded since they instituted the  security measures.

He said the excuse advance by the information commissioner Ibrahim Dosara is a demonstration of the extension of the “political incompetency” he has been pointing since the beginning of this government.

He recount that at the inception of the measures to shutdown the network, they have supported the idea 100% but later came to realized that the mission for that effect is purely political.

THE NON OPENING OF TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORK MAY BE FOR CHANGE OF SECURITY STRATEGIES

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A chieftain of All Progressive Congress Bello Matawalle faction Bashir Namada Ataka has declared that the non-reopening of telecommunication network by the Governor may not be unconnected with change of security strategies which may came up between Saturday when the pronouncement was made to date.

He said “I am very confident if something related to security intelligence did not came up Governor Matawalle would have done the needful but as law abiding citizens we should learn to be fair to leaders especially on sensitive issues related to security”.

“People may be anxious to see that other local governments have been opened as promised by the Governor but again we should understand that the Governor would do what is positive for his citizens”.

He implore the public to always learn to give the government breathing space and carefully monitor the steps taken by the government because at the end of the day the Governor would want to see his government succeeding and his people are happy.

He assured that Governor Bello Matawalle would always do what is good for the people of Zamfara regardless of what people from the opposition would say.