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Fred Itua, Abuja
Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, said over 300 abductees have been rescued from bandits since he assumed office two months ago.
He also expressed delight that in the last one month, there had not been reported case of kidnapping or other violent crimes by bandits.
The governor added that the ceasefire arrangement was yielding results.
Matawalle made the revelation when he signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) on the $1 billion investments in Abuja at the weekend.
“Zamfara State had so many issues before my emergence as governor. Today, we can call Zamfara State a peaceful one. For the first time in four weeks, there has been no report of any incident like kidnapping, killing or killings of citizens.
“Our administration is committed to giving a full secured state and we have started that by engaging bandits in peace, which they have accepted to lay down their arms. As at today, we have secured the release of over 300 people that were in captivity.
“Securing the release was done without any commitment; no single kobo or ransom was paid to the bandits.
“So, we assure that Zamfara State is safe for investors; they can come to the state.
They can come to the state and government is committed to making sure that everything is in place to guarantee their security.
“We thank you for the investment of about $1 billion which can cover manufacturing, power, infrastructure, mining and Agriculture.
We assure you that we have all the potential to utilise the said funds in order to move Zamfara State forward.”
President of the Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank, Prof. Benedict Okey Oramah, said the investments will cut across manufacturing, power, mining and agricultural sectors in the state for the purposes of opening it up for the required development as against poverty-driven violence.
The MoU on the multi-faceted investments, he noted was anchored on public private partnership (PPP) requiring the Zamfara State government and Afreximbank to leverage on the resources in the state.
