Embattled Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, on Thursday said that he is ready to sacrifice his position should a state of emergency be imposed on his state on account of its worsening insecurity.
This is even as he declared that his call for a state of emergency was not merely playing “politics.”
Yari revealed that some politicians had suggested the declaration of state of emergency on the wrong assumption that he would be afraid to lose his office, he said Thursday after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Lamenting the lack of presence of police in many parts of the state, he said policemen redeployed from the state following President Buhari’s directive have not been replaced.
He recalled that the President had directed that policemen who had spent three years and above be redeployed as a strategy to address the armed banditry im the state.
Yari assured that he was prepared to do anything that would ensure peace and security in the state.
The ongoing banditry in Zamfara has claimed over 3,000 lives in the past few years, the Secretary to the Government of Zamfara, Abdullahi Shinkafi, has said recently.
Mr Shinkafi also said the state government has spent some N17 billion in the past seven years on fighting the problem.
On his support for declaration of emergency in Zamfara, Governor Yari said he was not playing politics with it, saying ” I’m not playing politics with it. I’m serious about it.”
Asked whether he discussed the declaration of emergency with Buhari, he said, ” not at all.”
According to him, if the security agencies were serious, the insecurity in Zamfara state could be easily brought under control.
“There is no place being occupied by the armed bandits in Zamfara state. They live and operate in the forest. They strike and run. Most of the camps are known by locals,” he said.
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