President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday directed the deployment of more security operatives in Zamfara State to contain growing attacks by criminals in the area.
The directive was given during a meeting with the state Governor, Bello Matawalle, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Matawalle, who visited to brief Buhari on the security situation in the state, still repeated his opposition to the disbanding of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
He disclosed that in past days, following the scrapping of the squad, 20 lives had been lost in Talata Mafara Local Government Area of the state.
Speaking with State House Correspondents, the governor said, “I came to brief Mr. President on the current security situation in the state. After the disbanding of SARS we had some challenges, particularly day before yesterday about 20 people were killed in Talata Mafara Local Government Area. So I am soliciting for Mr. President to intervene and see how we can have more security personnel to secure the state’s territory.
“I also informed him about some illegal miners activities taking place in the state. We have been able to form committee, a task force on illegal mining so that they can go round the state and fish out those behind the illegal mining activities.
“Most of the illegal miners are not Nigerians but with the support of army, police and other security agencies in the state, some of them were apprehended and repatriated to their respective countries.
“Those were the two issues we discussed with Mr. President.”
On the complaints of extra-judicial killings, brutality and other allegations made against SARS, Matawalle Gave his own position, “To me, in Zamfara State, SARS are doing very well because they are tracking those criminals and prosecuting them, particularly those in the high area, SARS has the capacity to track and bring them to justice. So, to me, in Zamfara State we are in need of SARS, we know with their presence we have experienced peace in the state.
“I am not saying it must be SARS, whatever name will be given to it, we want them in our state. We did not experience any of those things they did that caused them to be disbanded in my state.”
On illegal mining in the state, he said, “We have deported 11 Chinese and over 20 from Burkina Faso and Mali.
You know we have the problem of a very porous border particularly from Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Niger Republic.
“People use to cross freely but with the measures that have been taken by Nigeria Immigration Services, I know they have deployed some drones on this border to check-mate the movement of other nationals into Nigeria.”
