A former Chairman of the Committee on Prosecution of Bandits and Related Offenses in Zamfara State, Sani Shinkafi has predicted that the security challenges in the State can only God having defied all known solutions.
Shinkafi who made the allegations when he recently featured on Channels Television Sunrise, alleged that unnamed traditional rulers indicted by the Committee (now disbanded) for terrorism financing who stopped their arrest and prosecution through courts.
He lamented that some traditional rulers and serving security agents along with retired police personnel linked to terrorism in Zamfara State during the tenure of the Governor Bello Mattawalle were neither interrogated nor tried after they sponsoring terrorism in the Committee’s Report.
TheNewspad reports that Bello Mattawalle, is the Minister of Minister of State for Defence who will be sworn-in today Monday August 21, 2023 by President Bola Tinubu.
The former government official also alleged that retired police officers and some serving military personnel who were summoned by the panel, were never released by the military, while the retired Police officers also escaped trial.
Shinkafi who did not disclose the names of the military and retired police officers, stated that the amnesty offered by the former government of Mattawale in the elsewhile national government of Muhamadu Buhari, which declared bandits terrorist group, has remain unabated.
Shinkafi blamed politicians for fuelling insecurity in North East region, added that “Those indicted were not made to face the law. There were a lot of interest. A few of the traditional rulers were deposed by the State government.
“They ran to court and stopped their trial. There were some personnel who were in the military in that Report. According to him, “When we wrote them to appear before the Committee for questioning, their military Commands refused to release the officers. Retired Police officers were also indicted in that Report.
“Traditional rulers were indicted. Up till now, nobody was prosecuted because some of them went to court and challenged the Committee’s recommendations of the Report, which is still with the State government. The case is still pending in courts.
“There is a lot of politics. They are playing politics with security of lives and properties of Zamfara people.
The former Chairman of the Committee on Prosecution of Bandits and Related Offenses in Zamfara State, also called for a forensic on funds allocated to security agencies, particularly the Nigerian military over the years and proper equipment of the Nigerian military in order to end insurgency in the North and other criminal activities across the federation.
According to him, “Since the declaration of bandits as a terrorist group by the federal government, there there has been no aggressive military action against bandits in their hideouts in the North. And there is shortage of personnel.
‘Most times, when you call on the military and respond to reported attacks on villages in Zamfara, they will need to get orders from Superior officers. Sometimes it takes two hours before they will respond. Before that time, the bandits and other criminals have operated unchallenged and escaped”, Shinkafi alleged.
TheNewspad recalls that the former government of Mattawalle had deposed some traditional rulers (Emirs) who were accused of terrorism financing his State. But, after a while, some of the accused pardoned by his government.
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