The governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, has revealed that he used repentant bandits and leadership of Miyetti Allah to secure release of the 344 schoolboys of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara without payment of ransom.

According to him, the repentant bandits and leadership of Miyetti Allah identified the syndicate that led the abduction, and then started the negotiation process.

He added that this is not the first time they secured release of victims of abduction without payment of ransom.

“When we established contact with them, I persuaded them to release them unharmed. And so they did tonight. This is not the first time we facilitated the release of our people without payment of ransom.

“Ask anybody, we don’t pay bandits a dime. What we do is to extend olive branch to them because they also want to live in peace.”

He also revealed that the abducted students are presently on their way home. He said, “As I speak to you, they are on their way to Tsafe, from where they will come to Gusau and sleep. They will begin their journey to Katsina tomorrow morning”.

Furthermore, Governor Matawalle clarified that bandits were behind the abduction, not Bokoharam “Nothing like Boko Haram in this. The bandits did it”.

Matawalle added that solution to banditry in the North is dialogue. He said, “If all the governors will sit to address this problem by adopting dialogue, banditry will reduce to barest minimum,”.

He also said that security agents are trying and they can do better in the absence of political interference “I can tell you security agents are really trying. When you remove political interference from their operations, you can get the results,” said the governor

Meanwhile, the governor of Katsina State, Aminu Masari, confirmed that the leadership of MACABAN/Miyetti Allah facilitate the release of the school boys and no ransom was paid before the boys were released

“We did not pay ransom to the kidnappers, it was purely negotiation.” He said

Explaning how the boys were released, “One hour ago, Nigerian soldiers and government officials that were involved in the negotiation for the release of the kidnapped schoolboys have told us that the whole school children have been released, 344 of them.

“Those involved in the negotiation include my adviser, some top military and police operatives, members of Miyetti Allah; (they) where all involved in the negotiation.”

He also confirmed that the boys were not kidnapped by Boko Haram, but bandits.“They are bandits who kidnapped the schoolboys, not Boko Haram.”