A former Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Bala Bantex has condemned a situation where non-state actors such as Sheikh Ahmad Gumi are demanding amnesty for bandits in Nigeria.
The former Deputy Governor who opposed the idea of the federal or state governments granting amnesty to bandits said such action is a mark of failure in dealing with insecurity.
He noted that bandits have destroyed the lives of many Nigerians as well as the economy of the country itself, hence negotiating with them or granting them amnesty is not ideal.
Bantex also submitted that it is difficult to deal with insecurity in Nigeria because some people are benefitting from it and don’t want it to end.
He made the submissions when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
In his words; “Gumi’s statement is also a show of a failing situation because when non-state actors are given the privilege to talk this way, rather than talk to authority over such sensitive issues, is a mark of failure as far as I am concerned.”
“The issues Gumi is raising, some of them have touched the very core of the issue that brings about insecurity. Fortunately for him, people are battling with how to survive and they are not looking at the details of what he said.
“Negotiating with people who have destroyed the economy of thousands of Nigerians, who have made life so totally useless and who are still doing so is not ideal,” he said.
In his reaction to the recent directive by President Muhammadu Buhari to security chiefs for them to end insecurity in Nigeria in a matter of weeks, Bantex noted that those benefitting from the current insecurity in the country won’t want it to end.
“There are some people sitting out there who are benefitting from this and who would not let it go in a hurry,” he said in reaction to President Muhammadu Buhari’s directives to service chiefs for insecurity to end in the coming weeks.
“If the President has passed that directive, I trust his ability to provide what the service chiefs require. I don’t want to see a situation where it is only in their exit like the former Chief of Army Staff who at one time said insurgency had become a thing of the past,” he said.
The former Kaduna Deputy Governor also advocated the creation of state police as part of measures to tackle insecurity in the country.