By James Orji
Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara state has distributed 260 state of the art cars to first class traditional rulers and emirs in the state. The magazine learnt that the gesture is to secure the cooperation of the traditional rulers in the war against criminality, particularly banditry in the state.
The state is one of the epicenters of banditry in the country. And the governor’s awards of cars to emirs comes barely four days after suspected armed bandits invaded Tsafe town, the council headquarters of Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State, killing many people.
According to report, the latest attack claimed the life of the state’s commissioner for security affairs, Mamman Tsafe.
A close aide of one of the traditional rulers who received the car gift told the magazine that “the village leaders have been working to ensure security pervades the entire state. This is necessary to support the government’s efforts to wipe off criminality,” he said.
Speaking on the car gift, Zailani Bappa, the governors’ Special Adviser on Media, said in a statement that the state government recognized the prime position of traditional rulers in the state.
He said the distribution of cars was performed by Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, at the government house in Gusau, on Wednesday.
According to the statement, Matawalle said the gesture was done in recognition of the status of the traditional institutions as “the custodians of our religion and culture and vehicle of cohesion and peace in our societies”.
“It is in view of the high esteem with which my administration regards our traditional leaders and institutions that we decided to procure brand new cars — Cadillac 2019 model for 17 emirs, 13 senior district heads and 230 district heads across the state,” the governor said.
