Bandits want Buhari to lead peace talks with them, accused govt of neglect

BANDITS terrorising states in the North have broken their silence on why they are wreaking havocs on lives and livelihoods of residents of the states.

Their grievance was made known by one of their members yesterday in an interview with Daily Trust

The member, who was masked throughout the conversation, said their killing and kidnapping sprees in the North were occasioned by the unfair treatment meted out to them by the government.

He noted that President Buhari, in particular, promised to engage them in a dialogue during his electioneering campaign but eventually reneged on the promise once he assumed office.

The masked bandit, who refused to give his name, noted that successive administrations since the country returned to civilian rule have refused to take good care of them adding that the last time they enjoyed good treatment from the government was during the military regime of the late Sani Abacha.

He claimed that the bandits were herdsmen who took up arms because the government abandoned them.

According to him, the herders had no security as they were being killed, and the government didn’t do anything.

He also accused the government of not providing education and jobs for their young ones.

He said, “We supported this administration and accepted dialogue because we thought Buhari will fix this country, but he won’t fix this country. From the time he praised Goodluck, Obasanjo, and Yar’Adua, these were not praiseworthy. It would have been better if he had praised Abacha, because, under Abacha, pastoralists were being educated.

“During Abacha, there was allocation in the budget for the nomadic communities. There was no such thing again since Obasanjo became president. They stopped looking after the Fulanis. Their forests and grazing areas were taken over.”

The masked bandit, however, offered the Buhari administration an opportunity to bring it all to an end by asking the  president to personally come to negotiate with them

He said, “An agreement was reached, but you left that person in the forest with a gun and nothing to substitute. What do you expect? How do you want that person to survive? All the promises made to us none of it was fulfilled,” the masked bandit said.

“The president should personally come and preside over the talks. When he was campaigning, he travelled all over, why would he not do it now? He does not take these peace talks seriously and everyday people are being killed.

“There is no day that someone is not killed between Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna, Sokoto and Katsina. There is no tribe that is spared, gunmen kill, soldiers kill, vigilantes kill. Whoever you see with a gun today in Nigeria, he uses it to kill people. You may not know but if I were to tell you the situation of things in this country, you will cry. Even the president will cry.”

The bandit said this days after prominent Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, who has been involved in series of negotiations with the criminals, advised the Federal Government to grant them amnesty like it did to Niger Delta militants.