What happens to victims of banditry, terrorism?

BY JONATHAN NDA- ISAIAH

The calls for blanket amnesty for bandits and killer herdsmen have grown louder in recent weeks. The campaigner-in-chief for amnesty is Kaduna-based cleric, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi. Recall that he met with banditry gangs in Kaduna, Niger, and Zamfara to negotiate their peaceful surrender.

After a meeting with Niger state governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, on Friday, February 19, 2021, to discuss the result of his negotiation with the bandits that allegedly kidnapped the GSS Kagara students, Gumi told reporters that the bandits are victims themselves.

“They were persecuted, arrested, lynched. The federal government should give them a blanket amnesty,” he said.

Gumi has argued in the past that the easiest and safest way to end insecurity in the north is to negotiate peace with the bandits.

“I’ve spoken with them (bandits) face-to-face and they’re ready to lay down their arms if their conditions are fulfilled, and I find all conditions they gave as justifiable,” he said two weeks ago.

When I first read the report, I thought maybe the highly respected cleric was misquoted. Bandits are victims themselves? If that was supposed to be a joke, we are not laughing.

Which bandits are victims exactly, the ones that have made Kaduna-Abuja road the most dangerous in the country or the ones that have killed several people on the road and made many children orphans, made people widows? Or the ones that kidnap people and make them walk several kilometers in the forest, causing untold hardship and excruciating pains to the victims and families. Or is he talking about the bandits that have taken over Birnin Gwari road in Kaduna and killed people and our brave military men often? Or is it the bandits that raid villages in Katsina and Zamfara killing scores that are victims?

I really want to be sure which of the bandits are victims and deserve our amnesty. Maybe the bandits that launched an onslaught last year on Tsawan community in Batsari Local Government Area of Katsina State are victims. According to eyewitness reports, the bandits snatched babies from their mothers and threw the infants into a burning fire. So these are the people that are victims and deserve our pity? Where is the evidence that they have genuinely repentant and are qualified for amnesty?

Kaduna state governor, Nasir El- Rufai, captured it succinctly when he averred that: “My administration is at war with the bandits and so we cannot negotiate. Eliminating them is the only solution to banditry. I never believed that a Fulani herdsman who ventured into banditry and is collecting millions of Naira as ransom will repent. I spoke to Dr Gumi, who is my friend; I explained that the majority of these bandits don’t believe in the religion. That is why they kill mercilessly.

“Anybody who thinks a Fulani herdsman that was used to only getting N100,000 in a year, after selling a cow, but now is getting millions through kidnapping for ransom will stop is only wasting his time,” he added. I agree completely with the governor.”

According to an Amnesty International report, more than 1,100 people have been killed in rural areas across several states of northern Nigeria. I believe the figures could be more as banditry activities in Zamfara are under-reported.

The question I have asked several times is that what about the victims of banditry and kidnapping? Who will compensate them? What can assuage the pains of losing a loved one? What can compensate for the trauma the kidnap victims go through in the hands of the bandits or the pains parents of the kidnapped school children experience?

Sadly, most victims of banditry and terrorism are Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in their own country and most have been abandoned and we want to treat the bandits like royalty, beg them to forgive us for treating them badly. This is a bad Nollywood script taken too far.

Jonathan Nda-Isaiah, political director at LEADERSHIP Newspapers, can be reached via 08061573299, 08054518774.