Governor Bello Matawalle said Zamfara State has not granted amnesty repentant bandits but what his administration initiated was to convince the bandits to accept peace and get them train in various trading activities and skills acquisition programs.
The Governor who declared this during an interview with channels TV on Wednesday said when he was in the national assembly he knows how much was voted for the amnesty programme in the Niger Delta which has never been the same thing with the situation in Zamfara.
He said when people talk about granting amnesty to the bandits many will think a huge amount of money was paid to the bandits but in the actual sense it was not the same scenario with Zamfara.
While insisting that nothing was given to the bandits after repenting, Matawalle said, some of them listened to the preaching by the Islamic Scholars and chooses to surrender for peace.
Matawalle added that the majority of the bandits that repented and accepted peace asked the government to create opportunity for them to enrol in to Islamic and Western schools which the government accepted.
He described the decision of the National Security Council on Zamfara State as a welcome development if that can help in crushing the bandits.
