Kaduna Ex-Deputy Governor Opposes Negotiations With Bandits

A former Deputy-Governor of Kaduna State, Bala Bantex has opposed the idea of the federal or state governments granting amnesty to bandits.

Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Bantex described statements credited to non-state actors on insecurity as a mark of failure.

“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,” he said.

“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.

According to the former deputy governor, some people are benefitting from insecurity in Nigeria and would not 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.”

READ ALSO: You Have Few Weeks To Secure The Country, Buhari Tells New Service Chiefs

Amid the myriads of security challenges facing the country, the ex-deputy governor said there was a need for the Federal Government to create state police.

He however called on the National Assembly to create the necessary legislation for the creation of state police.

Bantex remarks come two days after President Buhari directed the new service chiefs to secure the country in only a few weeks.

Buhari while decorating them at a ceremony held in the State House, Abuja said he expected that before the rainy season, they would have secured the country to the level that farmers who had fled their farms in different parts of Nigeria would have developed enough confidence to return to their farms.

“During our four-hour security meeting, on Tuesday, I had taken the responsibility as Commander-in-Chief for you to go out into the field and secure the country.

“You have got a few weeks to do that because, by the rainy season, we expect people to develop confidence and go back to the land so that we don’t get into trouble by being away from the field and therefore unable to produce enough food for the nation,” President Buhari said.