Zamfara State governor, Bello Matawalle, has vowed to take proper care of any bandit willing to surrender arms and embrace peace.
As part of efforts to fight banditry in Zamfara, Matawalle's administration has made it a policy to make peace deals with bandits who have terrorised the state for years.
Nearly two weeks after he granted amnesty to repentant bandits that surrendered 14 rifles, the governor received another batch of bandits on Monday, February 8, 2021.
Notorious bandit Auwalu Daudawa and six members of his gang surrendered 20 AK-47 riffles and one RPG to the governor in the presence of security agencies.
The bandits begged for forgiveness for their crimes and swore on the Quran to never return to their violent ways.
Matawalle commended them for forsaking their lives of crime and called on more bandits to embrace his administration's drive for peace in the state.
He said, "I call on people of the state to pray for Daudawa and his team so that he can maintain his oath.
"We should give them benefit of the doubt as we are going to provide them with accommodation in the town.
"We are going to assist them to improve their livelihood in the town."
Matawalle said last week the opinion of critics will not stop him from negotiating with bandits who want to surrender peacefully.
Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, recently slammed the peace deals by northern governors as unreliable, noting that bandits don't change.