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Masari Tasked Presidential Committee On Arms To Educate Repentant Bamdits
Governor Aminu Bello Masari has tasked the presidential committee on small Arms and Light Weapons to factor education in the resettlement of repentant bandits in the state.
Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari was speaking when he received the programme coordinator for the disarmament, Dickson Orji who led other members on a courtesy call at government house, katsina.
The Governor observed that the building of skills to the ex-bandits will not be possible without education.
Therefore, Governor Masari emphasized that providing adult education will make them to start to see the value of life.
This he said will in turn encourage the repentant herders to allow their children to be educated.
He observed that the only group that appreciate the value of education in the Forests are the herders with some form of Islamic knowledge.
The Governor explained that other herders in the Forests who have no any formal education, either Islamic or Western do not knowledge and would not support their children to obtain education.
He commended the committee for identifying goats with high breed in the provision of milk as resettlement package for those who surrender their arms.
Governor Masari remarked that the areas inhibited by the ex bandits is good for raising ruminants, especially goats.
He also praised the committee for looking beyond now in addressing the problems so that it doesn’t come back again, adding that even if the present APC administration succeeded in dessimating the bandits in the Forests, unless government follow up with Programmes as outlined by the committee, no progress will be made.
He said for the ex bandits to be able to face challenges posed by climate change, population explosion, education will help them to conquer the environment.
Already, he said desert is fast approaching, streams are drying and vegetation is depleting with negative consequences that only the educated could survive.
He opined that if you give somebody 100 million Naira today, he could spend the whole of it today, but if you educate somebody with 100 million Naira, he will be with skills for the rest of his life.
He assured that government would through the office of secretary to government continue to support the committee to make their Programme a success in the state .
Earlier, the programme coordinator,,Mr Dickson Orji told Governor Masari that they were in katsina to revive a project that they started earlier in 2017 , which for some reasons, there was a gap and couldn’t come back to continue as started, stressing that they are now in the state to restart the project.
Mr Dickson Orji explained that the project is about disarmament and to provide parliatives to both those who are being disarmed and also in terms of providing alternative micro projects at some community level.
He recalled that they paid similar courtesy call at the initial visit and took the opportunity to conduct arms destruction exercise on the weapons recovered in the state.
Mr Dickson Orji explained that the gesture of destruction of arms in the state goes along way to show the commitment of Katsina state government in the process of ensuring civilian disarmament because the issues of arms proliferation is the singular reason why conflicts continued unabated .
This he said also was why some miscreants will continue to hold katsina state government and the federal government to ransome without ammunition and guns, that would not be possible.
Mr Dickson Orji announced that the committee is developing strategies to ensure that the weapons coming into Nigeria will have the supply cut off.
He said they have another strategy to see how the committee could mop up the weapons that are still in circulation in the country, adding that it will be a gradual process.
He said that they have submitted various resettlement packages to disarmed herders to the office of the Vice president for approval and subsequent implementation.
