By KEMI KASUMU
Senator Ahmed Sani Yariman Bakure, Former Governor of Zamfara State, popular Kaduna-based Islamic scholar, Dr Ahmed Gumi, have been condemned over their advocacy for negotiation with bandits and insurgents.
They have also been admonished to jettison the thoughts and views that if bandits are negotiated with, peace would return to troubled zones of the country where they hold sway.
The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria (MMWG) made this declaration in a press statement issued and signed by its National Coordinator Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim, on Sunday.
The Group berated the two eminent personalities wondering why they compared insurgents and bandits with former Niger Delta militants.
According to the Group, while insurgents are destroyers of innocent human lives and property, armed bandits are money-mongers, who carryout kidnap of innocent people for ransome and as trade.
They even go further to kill their victims sometimes after collecting ransome from their relations, it said.
The Group asked, ‘How can you then compare these hardened criminals with militants of Niger Delta some who are fighting for legitimate right of recognition for job opprtunities in their oil-producing areas and skills acquisition for the youths so as to be useful to thenselves and the Society?”
Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, the leader of the Media Group and human resources management expert, stated categorically that, “anyone calling for dialogue with criminals and granting of amnesty to bandits are ‘on their own’ as the Nigerian Muslims all over the country who have largest share of their iniquities are not in support of such calls.”
He stated further that such a step by any government was capable of promoting youth restiveness and encouraging acts of criminalities.
On the controversial amnesty granted to some Boko Hqaram members by the Immediate-past administration, the Group said all the beneficiaries came on their own to surrender their arms and amnunitions and went further to lead the soldiers and other security agents to the abodes of other members, who also surrendered.
He added that most of them that surrendered have been rehabilitated and trained to be good citizens with acquired skills. Even then the Group said, “they are still under the watchful eyes’ of the top security agents”.
The Media Watch Group, therefore, called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to ignore Senator Ahmed Sani Yariman Bakura and Sheikh Ahmed Gumi as their calls for dialogue with bandits and insurgents “were nonsensical and unacceptable”.
