Foreigners exchange arms for gold, others in Zamfara — Gov Matawalle

Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, has lamented that some foreigners exchange arms for gold and other precious stones in his state.

He said the situation was contributing to the security challenges being witnessed in the state.

Matawalle spoke with State House correspondents after a meeting he had with the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday evening.

He said, “It is very important to us as a government, particularly on the issue of insecurity, to know the cause of insecurity.

“Zamfara State is blessed with many mineral resources and some people outside the country come in to buy gold and other precious stones and sometimes, instead of paying people, they pay with arms.

“I did some investigations. So, the state government will be buying some of these minerals so that we can block that chain.

“The state government is engaging the miners. We will be buying some of this gold from them with the limited resources we have.”

The governor identified illegal mining as one of the challenges facing the state.

He said about three days ago, there was an exposure of a large deposit of gold in the state where locals carry out illegal mining.

The governor said his purpose of visiting the President was to seek advice on how best we to tackle illegal mining.

Noting that the President gave him all the supports, Matawalle said the people of the state would see a lot of changes especially in the mining sector in a few days. (The PUNCH)