•Ignore Yerima’s call for negotiation, group urges president
John Shiklam in Kaduna and Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
Plateau Central Senator, Diket Satso Plang, yesterday, gave President Bola Tinubu, conditions that could make him pardon repentant bandits as being canvassed in some quarters.
This was as the Birnin-Gwari Emirate Progressives Union (BEPU), has called on the president to disregard calls by a former governor of Zamfara State, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, for negotiation with bandits.
A former governor of Zamfara State, Sani Ahmad Yerima, had Monday, visited Tinubu and urged him to extend amnesty to any bandit that was ready to lay down his arms and forsake banditry.
But reacting to the development while addressing journalists in Abuja, Plang said Tinubu should give respite to only, truly repentant bandits, saying those pretending to be repenting should be identified and massively dealt with.
“My house in the village was attacked twice. In the first instance, when I was a candidate contesting for election as a senator, kidnappers came, kidnapped my mother, stepmother, our maid and killed my younger brother, who came out to challenge the bandits.
“They went away with their victims and demanded for ransom. They threatened to kidnap more people if I failed to pay the amount they demanded for. By the grace of God, I was able to secure the release of my mother, stepmother.
“Punishment is for correction. Even God knows that we are not perfect hence he gave us grace to repent. He accepts us when we truly repent. We should be able to accept true repentance because God create room for true repentance.
“Nobody Is perfect, so if there is genuine repentance, we should accommodate it. You don’t beat a child to kill him but to make him know that he has done something wrong. At times, if there is true repentance from a criminal, give him a room, he might become a changed person.
“We should be able to give opportunity to whoever that genuinely repented to become a changed person. However, whoever that is pretending to be truly repenting with ulterior motive should not only be punished but get his punishment, doubled.”
On its part, the Birnin-Gwari Emirate Progressives Union (BEPU), in a statement, maintained that those advocating for dialogue with the bandits lacked understanding of the structural formation and divergent goals of the armed bandits.
The statement by Ishaq Kasai, Chairman of BEPU stated, “To successfully bring an end to armed banditry business in Nigeria, all bandits’ camps in our various forests must be dislodged as anything short of this will not address bring lasting solution to the problem.
“Engaging in negotiations with armed bandits will never yield significant positive outcomes because past experiences have demonstrated that criminal elements such as armed bandits, often exploit negotiations as a means to buy time, regroup, and strengthen their positions. They view negotiations as a sign of weakness of government, which emboldens them to continue their violent activities,” the group said.
