Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has expressed that the criticism of Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State for granting amnesty to bandits is unfair.
The minister, made this remark when he spoke on AIT’s ‘Kakaaki on Wednesday.
He revealed that the Federal Government won’t stop governors from addressing the security challenges in ways peculiar to their respective states.
According to Mohammed, the nature of the problem differs from state to state and the governors as chief security officers of their various states were in the best position to deploy the best solutions to tackle the issues.
Also Read: We’ll Keep Negotiating With Bandits — Zamfara Governor, Matawalle
The minister stated that there was nothing wrong with granting amnesty to criminals if the purpose was to restore desired peace in affected areas.
Mohammed said, “When you are fighting insurgency, you use both kinetic and non-kinetic (means). Granting amnesty to notorious drug barons, notorious militants is not a new thing, it is not unique to Nigeria.
“You need to be in the shoes of the Zamfara State government or governor to appreciate what are the issues at stake (and) why he has done that. Don’t also forget that the state governors are their own chief security officers.”
The minister further stated that there were conditions attached to granting amnesty to criminals.
He added that the state governors were in the best position to determine who meets these conditions and who should be granted amnesty.
