Foreigners buy gold with arms in Zamfara — Governor Matawalle

Governor Bello Matawalle has announced that foreigners are buying gold and other precious mineral resources with arms in Zamfara state which he governs.

The Zamfara state Governor who disclosed this after presenting some gold bars and other precious stones mined in his State to President Muhammadu Buhari, said his administration decided to embrace the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative to stop the criminal act being championed by illegal miners in the state.

Matawalle said;

“It’s very important to us as a government, particularly, the issue of insecurity, to know the root cause of insecurity. Zamfara state is blessed with many minerals resources and some people outside the country come in to buy gold and other precious stones and sometimes instead of paying people, they pay back with arms. I did some investigations. So, the state government will be buying some of these minerals so that we can block that chain. So, now the state government is engaging the miners. We’ll be buying some of this gold from them with the limited resources we have. ”

Commenting on the security situation in his state, Matawalle opposed the call for sack of the service chiefs who according to him need the support of all stakeholders.

He said;

“The narration has changed. You won’t be hearing of mass killings in the state because the security agencies are doing their best. I equally advised the president that those that are calling for the sack of the service chiefs is not the solution. Let’s support the security, we as the governors, we have a big role to play. We just have to support the security agencies.
“If the governors are not serious, they can’t be able to achieve what they want. I advised the president that all those calling for the sack of the security chiefs, they should think of the best way to support them to perform better instead of sacking them, even if you sack them, you’re bringing another one. So, let us use the one that we have. We’ll support them as a government.
“My state now is at peace and everybody is aware. We’ve more than 3000 policemen going round the mining sites in order to protect the mining site. We’ve the security. It’s just for us as leaders to support them. I believe we’ll see a lot of changes in terms of security in this country.”