Addressing State House reporters in Abuja after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, he said he realised that not all of bandits were criminals after his decision to initiate a peace deal with the bandits.

He said: “I’ve been calling my colleague the Governor of Niger State, to sit down with all stakeholders and find out the root cause of the crisis so that they can be able to dialogue and initiate reconciliation so as to also achieve what I’ve been able to achieve in my State.

“Most of the criminals that caused trouble in Zamfara, were not form my State. Two months back, we had some repentant bandits who submitted their weapons to the State government. One was fromm Yobe State, two from Kaduna, two form Niger State; so, you see, it’s a gang.

“In any case, we’re in discussions with the governor of Niger State and he’s following the steps so as to initiate a peace deal and very soon we shall see an end to such crisis.”

Matawalle said the current challenge might not be resolved if the herders continued to move from one state to the other in search of greener pasture.