A former senator representing Kaduna central during the eighth assembly, Senator Shehu Sani, has said that the Federal Government is more interested in arresting secessionists instead of putting all the energy it has in going after bandits and kidnappers terrorizing Nigeria.
Sani said in an interview with Arise TV today, August 04, 2021 that if the way ”they” are going after Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho is applied to bandits, things would have been better for residents of Kaduna and in the North.
The activist lamented that Kaduna State is under siege by bandits and criminal elements, saying banditry and kidnapping in the north have become so lucrative that stopping the menace will be difficult.
“Abduction has become a daily tragedy in Kaduna State, many even go unreported. Those that are reported are either mass abduction or the abduction of prominent people. We have reached a point, today, in this state where the only Local Government that are safe are two, Kaduna North and Kaduna South,” he said.
“All the other Local Governments in the State are under siege of bandits. We have never seen this kind of trouble and it appears that the abductions are even increasing by the day. All the four entrances to Kaduna State are all under bandits attack.”
“Anytime after 7pm, people in the outskirts virtually move to the centre of the city to go back in the morning.”he said.
He stated that bandits are now running a parallel government in Kaduna.
“Kaduna is a State under siege; armed bandits have taken over most parts of the State, they are impoverishing our people by forcing them to sell their homes, land and other property in order to pay ransom to get their loved ones freed”, he said.
“They have destroyed our agricultural system in the sense that farmers can no longer go to their farms. Our educational system has been disrupted because of the activities of these bandits. They have become more daring and audacious that in some places, they go about collecting taxes. They have become a state within a state; that is the sad situation we found ourselves in.
“I can say in comparative terms that there’s more interest for the Government in going after secessionists than going after bandits. I’m not a supporter of secessionists and I believe that secession agitation are virtually wrong and we should work towards a united Nigeria.
“But I believe that if the same effort, the way they are going after Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho is applied to these bandits, things would have been better for us in Kaduna and the North-western part of the Country. Arresting bandits is more important to us than the issues of Igboho and Kanu as far as I’m concerned.”
“The sad thing is that the kingpins of those involved in these kidnapping businesses are known; if the security agencies don’t go after them, we won’t get an end to kidnappings in the North East. These kidnappers don’t have a central command and control, they control various territories and they sometimes trade their hostages between themselves.
“When they kidnap a victim and the ransom is not paid on time, they trade the victim to another kidnapper who will increase the ransom to be paid. The government should be serious in terms of apprehending these gang leaders because until they are apprehended, we will not get to the bottom of these matters and the kidnapping business is not going to stop.”
“The kidnappers are not like Boko Haram or Islamic State of west African Province, (ISWAP) that has a leader you can talk to. The kidnappers and bandits exist in clusters and the tendency of them violating whatever agreement you reach with them is very high. So, Governor El Rufai has negotiated before and it has become a serious stigma in the sense that even the States that are negotiating have themselves not been able to end banditry and terrorism in their place.
“It is not just negotiation that we should be talking about, I think there should also be the political will to make sure bandits and terrorists activities are curtailed and contained”.
Speaking about Kanu and Igboho, who are currently in detention over their secessionist agenda, Sani said:
“The herdsmen and bandits are carrying arms, unleashing terror on innocent citizens, but the agitations of Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho are working towards breaking Nigeria. It is a reality that the Government has laid more emphasis on going after separatists than going after terrorists,” he said
