Zamfara Lawmaker Appeals to Government to End Kidnapping, Killings in State

A federal lawmaker from Zamfara State Hon. Aminu Jaji has again called for more sincerity and commitment in resolving issues of insecurity in the north Western part of the country.

The Chairman, House of Representatives, Committee on Ecological Fund, says there is the need for a synergy between the federal and state governments to tackle insecurity in the country.

While speaking with journalists, in Abuja, on the security challenges in Zamfara State, expressed concern over the security challenge in his state.

The lawmaker called on the Federal Government through National Security Adviser, the Zamfara State Governor to stop dialoguing with kidnappers.

“This thing is becoming a growing challenge that nobody knows when it will end.  It is a challenge that is becoming a national problem. Looking at the North West, 85 percent of the zone is agrarian communities.

Today the agricultural production in the North West is less than 20 percent due to to the insecurity. That is to say it is directly affecting the national economy. And if you look at the North Central, where they produce about 38 percent of the total agricultural that are for export, and now they are only producing less than 40 percent of their production due to insecurity.

Nobody is doing anything. We have to urge the federal and state government that this thing must be addressed squarely.  The only way this issue can be solved is for both the federal government and state government to come together,” Hon Jaji said.

He also said that despite the fact that our challenge yesterday, tomorrow and today are the same.

The insecurity remains a major issue in my state and some other states in the North, despite the fact each state in Nigeria today has its own peculiar problem relating to security and otherwise. But this become very necessary for people to be aware of what we are facing in Zamfara State- in my constituency and the North West.

Hon Jaji said that there is a lot of blame game between the Zamfara state governor and the Federal Government about the issue of dialogue.

He described the scenario as “unpalatable“.

“Looking at the fact that the issue of security is not something we can play with. We have to give it a holistic approach in order to deal with it decisively,” he noted.

Hon Jaji lamented that last week the  bandits came to Kaura Namoda, which is the second largest town in Zamfara State and kidnapped many people.

“They killed some and they carted away their property, including cattle. So, this thing has become a challenge” He said.

He said that the bandits were using many means to recruit people below the age of 18 which needs to be looked into at critically.

Hon Jaji who was the former Chairman National Security and intelligence Committee also said that it sad that every plenary, the House would hold “one minute silence” for victims of bandit attack, saying that insecurity needed to be addressed.

“Bringing motion to the flow of the house by the day to talk about killing in various constituency, observing a minute silence and calling on different security Agencies to take steps and constituting committee will not solve the problem. The only way to solve the problem is for both federal and state government to come together and be sincere about it,” he said.

The lawmaker also said that following the kidnap of some students in the state,  people will start saying there is no need to take their children to school again because they are not safe.

” That means the education system in the not will be crippled by the activities or  these criminals,” he said.

Hon Jaji added that it was not enough for federal government to debunk that they are not in a meeting with the bandit, but should find out,who are the people in military uniform that were at the seen of that dialogue.

Lateefah Ibrahim