The Birnin-Gwari Emirate Progressives’ Union (BEPU) has urged President Bola Tinubu to ignore demands for talks with terrorists from Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima and others. Yerima is the former governor of Zamfara state.
BEPU chairman Ishaq Usman Kasai issued a statement saying that the calls demonstrated a lack of knowledge of the nature of bandits and their ambitions, which had resulted in massive destruction, loss of life, and destabilization of the country.
BEPU claims that clearing out all bandit camps in Nigeria’s many forests is necessary to put an end to the business of banditry in the country as a whole.
The chairman emphasized that negotiating with bandits is unlikely to produce beneficial results and that any other option would just be a stopgap measure.
He said that history showed that criminals like bandits would use discussions to their advantage to gain more time, fortify their positions, and do the crime.
He thought the government’s willingness to negotiate showed weakness and encouraged the bandits to keep up their aggressive campaign.
According to the union, any good faith negotiations would be difficult to enforce because to the widespread absence of centralized leadership among the country’s bandits.
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