With thousands of households displaced and income of many families put at zero due to the criminal activities of bandits in the States of North West Nigeria, amnesty as an initiative to end the scourge has been considered by some governors in the region. Will negotiating with bandits bring the lasting end to the menace of their nefarious activities? That’s the big question that has stir up debates in recent time.
To begin with, the high rate of banditry and kidnappings in the Northwest according to officials of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has affected food production in the area by over 50 percent. The apex farmers’ body also noted that already, bandits had displaced more than 10,000 households, mostly peasant farmers, in Zamfara, while in Kebbi, the hub of rice farming in Nigeria, no fewer than 350 farmers had been forced to abandon their farms by the criminals at the height of the insurgency attacks.
Aside farmers, the mining communities have also shared the brunt of the activities of the bandits. In 2016, about 45 illegal gold miners were reported killed in one of the Local Government Areas in Zamfara. Survivors of the deadly attack narrated that the bandits, numbering about 50, cordoned off the entire area before ransacking the mines, demanding for gold and other precious stones from the miners.
There is no denying the fact that aside Boko Haram, another daunting security challenge bedeviling the country is banditry and kidnapping in the North West region and the implication is that the security apparatus are fast losing control of superior fire power over the sundry criminal cartels.
The Power of Negotiation
Barely a month after his inauguration as Governor of Zamfara State, Governor Bello Muhammad Matawalle granted amnesty to 100 suspected bandits. This move was condemned with many questioning how the decision would bring about a lasting peace to the State.
While the debate over Mattawalle’s decision was on, the Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, also announced that his government has granted amnesty to bandits and cattle rustlers in the state warning that no vigilante group member or volunteers should attack or kill any herder.
The proponents of amnesty granted to bandits and cattle rustlers in the North-West have argued that since the same option could be considered for Niger-Delta Militants, exploring the same to solve banditry should not be condemned. It is however important to note, while the former was agitation for resource control and benefits, the latter was simply act of criminality with dire consequences.
It is clear that in the Niger-Delta and the North-West, militants still have access to sophisticated weapons which could be used at anytime their demands are not met. For example, few weeks after the cease fire agreement was reached in Zamfara, the bandits and cattle rustlers moved their ‘trade’ to other North West States like Sokoto and Kebbi. This implies that it is business and the criminal activities will continue if their demands were not met.
What is the position of security agencies on the amnesty granted by the governors? Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba had in an exclusive interview with Rootstv Nigeria said the payment of ransom or any form of negotiation with kidnappers or other criminal elements are what encourage the ‘business’ to thrive.
“The reason kidnapping keeps thriving is because people pay ransoms, if we all could stand that we’ll not pay ransom again, the kidnappers will be knocked out of business. Yes you can argue that if you fail to pay ransom that you or your relative could be harmed, I agree but at the same time, you could also look at the other side, if we all continue to pay without fighting back, without resistance, we are indirectly setting the stage up for greater people to be involved in kidnapping.
“As a responsible police agency, we’ll not willingly support the payment of ransom but like I said before, God has given people power to make decisions and when people make decisions within the confines of their homes, they cannot be subjected to absolute control by the policing agencies.
“It’s a whole lot of complicated web and there’s no quick fix. Mba said
There’s no hiding the fact that Nigeria is on the edge of precipice as the security apparatus of the state is fast losing its monopoly to sundry criminal cartels. While it will take a collaboration of all the critical stakeholders to bring lasting peace to the region, negotiating with criminals should not be an option.
