Media aide to President Muhammadu Buhari,Garba Shehu says the presidential declaration of no fly- zone on Zamfara State and ban on mining was to boost security of lives and mineral resources in the state.
Shehu who was speaking with newsmen on the no fly zone on Zamfara State said,” there is a strong suspicion that some of the choppers are being used to ferry arms for bandits and
also used to evacuate gold and illegally smuggled out of the country,.
According to him Nigeriian gold market is a big business and the governmentt wants to achieve ending banditry and economic sabotage by the ban on flights and mining on Zamfara State.
Meanwhile, the Governor of Zamfara State,Bello Matawalle had said the federal government’s ban might not check banditry.
The Peoples Democratic Party PDP has also rejected the ban describing the move as a sinister plot by the All Progressives Congress APC to take forcefully take over the governance of Zamfara state through an imposition of a state of emergency in the state.
Addressing newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja, the party spokesman,Kola Ologbonidiyan recalled” a statement on December 19,3020, of plots by the National Caretaker Committee of the APC,using an impostor as spokesperson to heighten insecurity on the Northwest part of the country. adding that the PDP had in thst statement further alerted of conspiracies by the APC to use the said impostor to destabilise Northwest states, particularly Zamfara by creating the space for acts of violence and blame it on Governor Matawalle.”
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