Lawmaker Faults Granting Amnesty To Bandits

A federal lawmaker and Deputy Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence, Adejoro Adeogun, has criticised the Katsina State Government for granting amnesty to bandits in the state.

In August 2019, Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari granted amnesty to cattle rustlers and armed bandits as part of measures to restore peace in the state.

But the lawmaker, on Sunday, said granting amnesty to bandits or negotiating with them is an acceptance of failure.

“Negotiating with bandits or thinking of amnesty for bandits is actually an acceptance of failure. It is a vote of no confidence on the capability of the security forces that we actually have to sit down with criminals to negotiate.

Read also: Insecurity: Bandits Killed Over 1,000 Nigerians In Six Months – Amnesty

“Then that is the situation we have found ourselves and I think the governor of Katsina State was helpless and he took that measure.

“It has failed; it is not going to work. When you are offering amnesty, you offer amnesty to someone who has been defeated not someone who is saying I want to fight to die. I think we are adopting the wrong procedure,” he said when he appeared on a TV programme monitored by Eko Hot Blog.

On the way forward, the lawmaker who represents Akoko South East/South West Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives asked the Federal Government to build the capacity of the nation’s armed forces to effectively tackle insecurity in the country.