KEMI OMONIYI
Former Governor of Zamfara State, Sanni Yerima, has advised the Federal Government to eliminate all the bandits operating – mostly in the North-Western parts of the country – if the option of dialogue fails.
The ex-governor, who vowed to work for the stability of the state, said this while responding to questions from newsmen after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa.
Asked why he urged the Federal Government to adopt dialogue with the bandits first before engaging maximum force, Yerima explained that negotiating with the bandits was to avoid collateral damages that may come with use of force.
According to him, adopting the same dialogue method used by Late President Umaru Yar’adua in resolving the militancy in the Niger Delta region would produce better results.
Yerima said the bandits were majorly uneducated and ignorant and would be willing and ready to be rehabilitated and reintegrated into the society if the Federal Government was willing to engage them in dialogue.
He said, “Like I keep on saying that the best way to go about handing the issue of bandits should be the introduction of dialogue first, but as I said if that fails, then the government will go all out to eliminate them.
“Why I said we should start discussing with them is to avoid the collateral damage that may come up, if intensive and extensive military operations are directed. But that should be the last option.
“Look at World War I and World War II, the wars were not ended in the battlefield. They were ended on the table. They had to negotiate. So negotiations is part of governance. The reasons some of them are doing this are ignorance and poverty. So what you need to do is to identify what you can do to separate these people and make sure that they are integrated back to the society.”
Asked why the dialogue option adopted by the immediate past governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawale failed, Yerima said the negotiation couldn’t work because the state had limited resources pointing out that the state and Federal Government could not be compared in terms of capacity and resources.
On whether he could be misconstrued to be making a case for the bandits with his dialogue proposal, Yarima said he was not in any way making a case for the bandits but was only offering solution to a lingering problem.
“The bandits, a lot of them have been killed. A lot of them have been arrested. And I’m not saying that government should just continue to negotiate indefinitely, No! I said, invite them. There are people who repent in all religions, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, you find that God himself who created us once you repent after committing sin, he forgives you. So, there is no way you can say Nigerians should not be forgiven if they repent.”
