The All Progressive Congress (APC) in Zamfara State chapter has kicked against the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) call on Governor Bello Matawalle to resign, saying that the opposition party was behind banditry in the state. Addressing journalists at the APC headquarters in Gusau, the state Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Yusuf Idris, said the PDP was solely behind banditry activities in the state as most of their members were involved in mining activity which was responsible for banditry.
Idris said the mining activity that was viewed as a major reason for banditry in the state was controlled by the majority of the PDP stalwarts in the state, including General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau. He said: “General Aliyu Gusau, who is the biological father of Mahdi Aliyu Gusau, the current PDP leader in the state, controlled over 70 percent of the mining licenses before they were revoked by the federal government. “One will be left with no option but to believe that Aliyu Gusau and other PDP stalwarts were behind banditry in Zamfara State because their mining sites were never attacked by bandits. “Similarly, he (Aliyu Gusau) and other PDP members have never come to the state to sympathise with the government and people of the state whenever there were bandit attacks.
“The reason why the PDP is not happy with the feat being attained by the governor and the APC in addressing insecurity in the state is because they are the ones behind the criminals, thus fighting bandits is like fighting the PDP in the state.” Idris stressed that PDP members were not happy with Governor Matawalle’s defection to the APC and that was why they were trying to intimidate him that he did not perform. “After many open and nocturnal attempts by the PDP in the state to reverse the defection of Governor Matawalle from their party have failed, they now resorted to placing the governor in a bad light on the issue of security,” he added.