The governor said he has no objection to the declaration of state of emergency in his domain to restore peace.
He spoke with reporters after holding a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Noting that the security situation in the state has improved, Yari said the bandits responsible for the security breach breed their cattle in the forest and strike occasionally.
He also accused the security agencies, especially the police of not doing enough by promptly replacing redeployed officers.
According to him, some of the officers that were transferred out of the state after serving three years have not been replaced.
He noted that the lingering cases of armed banditry will not affect the forthcoming elections.
Stating that he met the President over the security situation in the state, he said the issue of the armed banditry was being exaggerated.
He said: “You are aware of what is happening in Zamfara State, and some part of the neighbouring state on the issue of banditry, abduction and insurgency; so, it’s important that I come forward to brief Mr. President on the situation on ground which I just did.
“We sit down as head of security in the state with other stakeholders to review the situation and come with the report that we think will help the security agencies through Mr. President to strategise so that they can curb the problem.”
On the current situation, he said: “The situation is calm now, as a state we are putting our best to ensure normalcy return, we have started getting results, we believe strongly with what we have on ground in terms of number of security personnel, if they take their job seriously, within a short time, we’ll get out of this situation. And we hope that with encouragement from the President, in no time, the issues will be a thing of the past.”
Speaking on the call for the declaration state of emergency, he said: “Yes, we are there as a government because it’s the lives of people we are talking about; if there are no lives, we won’t be there. So, therefore, I did not make that statement out of politics because the way some other people are looking at it politically, since my inception, I have never taken insecurity as a political affair, but I look at it as criminality and I approach it in the way that it can be solved. Some other politicians have been calling for state of emergency since three years ago, then I said to myself, if state of emergency would solve the problem, then Yari is ready.”
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Politics