Musa Saidu, a leader of the Arewa Community living in southern Nigeria, has expressed his support for President Bola Tinubu‘s stance against negotiating with terrorists or paying ransom to bandits who are causing chaos among the public.
In an interview with journalists on Wednesday, Saidu praised the President’s decision as appropriate and a positive step towards addressing the issue of insecurity in the country.
He urged the Federal Government to continue their efforts in tracking down and eliminating the terrorists and their supporters.
“Although banditry remains the most prevalent threat to Nigeria’s national security, paying ransom to the criminals would only embolden them to commit more atrocities,” he said.
“The bandits are sponsored by some unpatriotic politicians with the support of some unpatriotic security agents to destroy our society, it will be a failure on the side of government if it listens to the criminals.
“For government to pay ransom means it is empowering the bandits to buy more weapons for their criminal activities.”
He recommended that states dealing with banditry should organize and support local vigilantes to safeguard their communities and aid security forces during operations.
“State governments should buy more weapons for their vigilante groups and train them on intelligence gathering,” Saidu added.
Additionally, he proposed increasing the recruitment of soldiers and policemen to address the security requirements of the nation.
“We can’t surrender our communities to those killing , kidnapping, raping, looting, and displacing our people. The bandits and terrorists must be eliminated,” he said.
He rejected the recent suggestion by cleric Sheik Ahmed Gumi for the government to negotiate with the bandits, calling it baseless.
Saidu encouraged Nigerians to back the government and security forces in combating terrorism and all types of crime in order to enhance the safety of the country.
