- Nigerian government letting murderers, kidnappers go scotfree
The Nigeria Police Force says it has recovered about 19 rifles and other firearms from repentant bandits in Zamfara State.
Usman Nagogo, Zamfara State Commissioner of Police, said this during the display of the arms that were presented to the state Governor, Bello Matawalle.
He said the firearms were recovered between August 30 and September 5.
Matawalle said the police rescued about 375 hostages from Zamfara, adding that 90 percent of the bandits are ready to surrender and submit their weapons under the ongoing disarmament programme.
He said: “The firearms recovered from Yellow included a light machine gun (LMG) rifle with breech number erased, an AK47 rifle with batch number 35372, FN rifles with numbers 167119 and 212108 as well as 10 rounds of live ammunition and military camouflage.
“On September 4, one Kachalla Halilu, a repentant bandit from Sububu forest in Maradun LGA submitted four deadly rifles to the commissioner of police, a sign of receiving government's offer of amnesty wholeheartedly without any condition.
“They include two AK47 with empty magazine, FN and LMG rifles. These are rifles that were received from remorseful bandits who have also promised to surrender their arms and ammunition without government paying a dime.
“Similarly on September 5, the same remorseful bandit surrendered six calibers of different assorted automatic rifles to the commissioner of police including general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) and five AK47 rifles.
“It is instructive to note that all these rifles were received as the tip of the iceberg. The real disarmament has not even started. The contacts we made gave us a hint that more than 90 percent of the repentant bandits are ready to surrender their arms.
“They are interacting with the people and security agents about their future plans. This itself has proven that the amnesty offered by the government is working and actually it will boost the economic activities of the state.”