The Minister of State for Defence has blamed those he described as “conflict entrepreneurs” as being responsible for unending banditry in Nigeria’s northwest.
Mr Matawalle said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Abuja.
“Banditry has its economy, which is fuelling the crime in the country.
“Conflict entrepreneurs don’t want insecurity to finish in this country. Many people in the North are part of the business. I call it business now because those selling drugs are part of it, those selling food, fuel and other essentials are all part of it.
“The informants get a lot from doing that. They are paid handsomely for that crime. So, they don’t want the evil to finish. Many people have keyed into the business,” he said.
Mr Matawalle, who is the immediate past governor of Zamfara State, one of Nigeria’s most terrorised states, said during his tenure he observed that when a bottle of coke was sold for N100 in the city, some people sold it for as much as N500 to bandits in their enclaves.
“Also, when a bag of rice was sold for between N18,000 and N21,000, when it gets to the enclave of the bandits, it goes for as much as N80,000,” he added.
The minister, however, said that security was a collective responsibility for all Nigerians, urging all to put their differences aside, and team up to fight it.
He said that if not for some of the actions he took as a governor, the Northern part of the country would have been burning by now.
The minister said that the worst part of the situation was that people didn’t appreciate what the military was doing.
Mr Matawalle, who has been criticised by his successor Dauda Lawal, for worsening the insecurity in the state, debunked the claims.
Credit: premiumtimesng.com
