Don’t Waste Your Time Negotiating With Bandits- El-Rufai Advises Gunmmi
The peace efforts by Kaduna based Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gummi to convince bandits to lay down arms and embrace peace, maybe an exercise in futility as the criminals are used to getting big money and will not repent, Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufa’i of Kaduna state has said.
El-Rufai spoke on a BBC Hausa program monitored in Kaduna.
The governor reiterated that Kaduna was at war with the criminal elements, pointing out “my administration is at war with the bandits and so we cannot negotiate. Eliminating them is the only solution to banditry.”
He said the Islamic scholar is wasting his time as there won’t be any forgiveness and compensation for bandits.
‘I never believed that a Fulani herdsman who ventured into banditry and is collecting millions of Naira as ransom will repent. I spoke to Dr Gumi who is my friend, I explained that majority of these bandits don’t believe in the religion. That is why they kill mercilessly. ”
‘Anybody who thinks a Fulani herdsman that was used to only getting N100,000 in a year, after selling a cow, but now is getting millions through kidnapping for ransom will stop, is only wasting his time.”
On the synergy to confront the criminal elements in the region, the governor lamented over the division amongst governors in the Northwest region. According to him, while some of the governors prefer dialogue with the bandits as a solution, he and others did not see that as a solution.
His words: “We the governors, lack unity among ourselves in this region in working as one to neutralize the bandits. We in Kaduna and Niger state are talking on how to end the problem.
The governor of Niger state calls me and we are discussing. Anybody that thinks a Fulani man that ventured into kidnapping for ransom and he is earning millions of Naira would go back to his former life of getting N100,000 after selling a cow in a year , must be deceiving himself.”
“Why should they be compensated after killing people, they destroyed their houses. Who offended them? Ahmad Gummi is my friend and this is what I told him.”
“I told him that the majority of these Fulani bandits don’t believe in religion. Therefore, I don’t believe in what he is doing, that they should be forgiven and compensated, If any bandit is arrested in Kaduna state, the bandit will be killed because Kaduna is in war with bandits.”
“They kill without mercy, they don’t believe in the religion,’ he said.
