Zamfara State governor, Bello Muhammad Matawalle, has promised to give repentant bandits two cows for each AK47 rifle surrendered.
Matawalle disclosed this on Thursday when he hosted Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, Director-General of the Department of State Services, Yusuf Bichi, and other heads of intelligence units of military and police.
The governor explained that cows were chosen as compensation because the bandits being Fulani needed the cows to advance their economic interests.
He said, “For every rifle submitted by a repentant bandit, there would be compensation of two cows.
“We don’t want to give them money, so they wouldn’t use the money to purchase new weapons.
“We said we will compensate them with cows, they are Fulani and they need the cows to advance their economic interest.
“We also told the repentant bandits that all “Dabas” (camps) in the forests should be disbanded. We won’t accept a situation where the bandits will disarm and then go back to the forest and be staying in these camps or Dabas.
“We asked them to either come to town and be reintegrated into the society or be given economic empowerment where they are, so that they would start a new life.
“Most of them are residing in forests under the shades of trees and inside caves. That is why we came up with RUGA policy to help them.”
