A group of bandits has called on President Muhammadu Buhari
to personally oversee peace talks with them.
In the past few months, bandits have been carrying out
series of attacks and kidnappings in northern Nigeria.
Ahmad Gumi, a prominent Islamic cleric, had met with some of
the bandits in the forests of Zamfara, appealing for peace.
But in an interview with Daily Trust, a masked bandit said
if Buhari could travel around the country when he was campaigning, nothing
should stop him from coming for peace talks.
He said an agreement was earlier reached with his group, but
they were soon abandoned in the forest.
“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,” he 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.
“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.”
He said they took up arms because they, as herders, were not
carried along by the government.
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.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayBandits blame lack of education & poverty for violent activities pic.twitter.com/MeME1J9QVg
— David Otto Endeley (@ottotgs) February 24, 2021
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com