The Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, has explained that his decision to engage in dialogue with bandits—despite being accused of sponsoring them, which he has denied—was influenced by advice from the residents of his state.
Matawalle disclosed this during an interview with Channel TV’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, September 24.
Matawalle said: “Yes I initiated the reconciliation dialogue. Of course, when I became the governor, I looked at the scenario, what is happening? Why bandits is killing people at present?
“So I was thinking the best way is to tackle the situation, so I’ve been getting a lot of advice from different centres which I ended up calling all stakeholders meeting at that time, I called the traditional rulers, the religious leaders, the security agency, the leader of the Fulani, the leader of the Asa clan.
“I heard from each group differently. I didn’t combine them, so after we now finished the discussion. I now pack down the security agencies of the state. The security agency comprises the Army, police, DSS, immigration, civil defence, all of them. So we sat down together based on the recommendation we have from the people of the state, the traditional rulers. So from our recommendation, the best solution at the time was to have a dialogue with the bandits and it was a success.”
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