The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) says the use of force
against repentant bandits will not yield the expected results in the
government’s efforts to improve security.
In a statement on Thursday, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman,
spokesperson of the group, commended Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi and other
“reasonable state governments” for adopting dialogue with bandits and herders.
Last week, Gumi, a prominent Islamic cleric, had met with
some suspected bandits in the forests of Zamfara state and appealed for peace.
Five days later, Auwalun Daudawa, the alleged mastermind
behind the abduction of some students from a secondary school in Kankara,
Katsina state, “repented” and was granted amnesty by the Zamfara state
government.
Suleiman asked the government to create “suitable lands and
creating grazing reserves” for herdsmen to end the tension resulting from their
nomadic activities.
“We emphatically repudiate the stand of the Northern
Governors Forum against open grazing without first identifying suitable lands
and creating grazing reserves and cattle routes, after four years of lying
about resettling the pastoralists through vogue initiatives that never
materialised,” he said.
“We call on the Nigerian public to note that rather than
working to ensure a united, secure one Nigeria, the federal government appears
to be creating and fanning the present chaotic situation in order to cover its
serial misgovernance and pervasive institutional and structural corruption.
“We solidly stand with the Sheikh Ahmed Gumi initiative for
engagement that could lead to amnesty, reorientation, reintegration,
reassimilation for those who embrace peace and a complete crackdown on those
who reject peace.
“In this regard, we support and encourage the efforts of the
Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi and other reasonable state governments that
prefer dialogue to the hardcore counterproductive use of force for further
bloodshed preferred by el-Rufai and his ilk.”
The CNG spokesman also kicked against labelling all Fulanis
as herders, adding that not all herders are involved in criminal activities.
“CNG also notes that the ongoing actions, ostensibly to
checkmate the rising tide of insecurity, are nevertheless without drawing
distinctions between the Fulani as a race, or cattle herding as an occupation,
from criminality,” Suleiman said.
“The CNG is concerned about the risk of neglecting the fact
that all Fulani are not cattle herders, or that although most cattle herders in
Nigeria are Fulani, there are others that are not; or that just because some
herdsmen commit crimes, does not make all cattle herders criminals.
“CNG is further worried that the consciousness is eroding
that the vast majority of the Fulani including those who are cattle herders are
peaceful everyday people with the same needs, anxieties and hopes as the rest
of Nigerians.”
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