Kaduna: APC decries Ashiru’s plan to dialogue with bandits

The Kaduna State APC Campaign Council has said that the gubernatorial candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Isa Ashiru, has a poor understanding of insecurity as his solution to the problem will have disastrous consequences.

In a television interview, Isa Ashiru had promised to reach out to bandits and bring them to a roundtable, in his efforts to solve insecurity in Kaduna State, when elected governor.

But in a statement signed by the Director of Strategic Communication, Malam Ibraheem Musa on Wednesday, March 8, the Campaign Council described Ashiru’s plan “as a simplistic solution to deep security and socio-political problem which manifests in criminality.”

The APC reminded the PDP gubernatorial candidate that the federal government has formally declared bandits as terrorists, in the ‘Terrorism (Prevention) Proscription Order Notice, 2021,’ which is contained in Volume 108 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette.

The APC Campaign Council pointed out that “no sovereign state or subnational should negotiate with terrorists because these people are criminals whose modus operandi is incompatible with civilized norms.”

“The only way to deal with them is to treat them in the language that they understand, which is to take the battle to their hideouts and attack them to submission, which our gallant Armed Forces are now doing,” the statement said.

The Director of Strategic Communication reminded Ashiru that “states which followed the ill-fated plan of negotiating with bandits and entering a peace deal with them, ended up regretting it.”

“The so-called repentant bandits did not only return to their old ways of killing and kidnapping for ransom, they became more ferocious because they acquired more sophisticated weapons to restock their arsenal,” he added.

Musa reminded the PDP gubernatorial candidate that the war against banditry requires a multi-prong approach and collaboration between states and federal government, more boots on the ground and a constitution amendment that allows for state police.

The APC Campaign Council pointed out that Kaduna State Government has been supporting security agencies with logistics, adding that it is the first subnational to have a full-fledged ministry that is devoted to security.

The Star