Kabir Marafa, senator representing Zamfara central, says Zamfara has recorded more violence-related deaths than Benue but the government is allegedly trying to prevent people from talking about it.
Marafa said this on the floor of the senate on Wednesday while drawing the attention to the security situation in Zamfara.
He said the security situation in the state is “getting worse” as people have resorted to buying arms to protect themselves.
The senator also alleged that Abdullaziz Yari, governor of Zamfara, had directed the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state to summon him over comments he made on security issues.
“I commend the people of Benue state for drawing the attention of the federal government to the problems in the state. Seventy-three people were killed in Benue, and we saw how the state government gathered the prominent sons and daughters of Benue state to address the issue,” he said.
“More than twenty times that number (73) have been killed in Zamfara in the last four years but we have never seen such type of attention and the reason is very simple; the state government is antagonistic of anybody trying to bring the issue to the front burner.
“I expected the state government to either deny what I said or come out with another outlook, instead they assembled pimps and miscreants to attack me in the media. I am not bothered by that but the problems I reported are still there and people are now buying arms to protect themselves.
“I don’t want a case whereby tomorrow, people will be arrested for buying guns for protecting themselves because they are not protected. There is a problem in Zamfara, people are being killed every day and kidnapped for ransom that they don’t have, and people are resorting to buying weapons to protect themselves.
“The only thing the government did was to instruct the party (Zamfara APC) to invite me for the comments I made on the floor of the senate, I am not afraid of this invitation but they have left a precedent; in 2012 a member of the house of representative made comments against governor Abdullaziz Yari, he was invited to Gusau and miscreants were arranged to attack him.”
