Following uproar his turbaning ceremony caused, the renowned bandit Ado Aleiru, who was recently turbaned as Sarkin Fulani in Yantodo Emirate of Zamfara State, has broken his silence.
The bandit, who has been charged with terrorizing several areas of the North West, claimed in an interview with DW Hausa that he did not ask for the title.
He said, “Honestly I didn’t solicit for the title, I was summoned by the Emirate which initially I rejected.
“After consultations with our leaders over the development, they suggested that I shouldn’t turn down the offer since the new emir insisted it had to happen in his emirate; that was how I accepted it.”
Aleiro also denied having been behind the murder of more than 100 individuals in Katsina state’s Kadisau village’s Faskari local government region.
He said he did not know the person responsible for the attack, adding, “Please go and ask the village head of Kadisau; it was a reprisal attack, I wasn’t involved in it; I was just linked to it”.
The role he played during a recent peace process locally negotiated between the emirate and the bandits terrorizing Tsafe Local Government Area of the state was the basis for the decision to bestow the title on the banditry leader.
When it was revealed that he would be given a title, there were numerous objections, yet the ceremony for donning the turban took place hours after the emirate declared the suspension of the procedure.
But since then, Zamfara Governor Bello Matawalle has prohibited monarchs from bestowing titles on anyone without the consent of the state administration.
