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• Zamfara ex-lawmaker warns against negotiating with criminals
Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, says he will draft hunters in the state to end banditry.
Governor Sule made this known yesterday while hosting members of the Hunters Group Nigeria in Government House, Lafia.
Sule, who noted that hunters in the state had been working with security agencies to tackle banditry, promised to compensate them for putting their lives on the line.
The governor, however, urged the national officials of the association to unite all hunters under one umbrella.
He recalled visiting some of the hunters that got wounded and were receiving treatment at a hospital in Nasarawa last year.
According to him, unlike states in the South West, where Amotekun security outfit operates, Nasarawa has since adopted community policing, with most of the members trained in Makurdi, Benue State.
He added that hunters were part of the community policing team in the state.
In his remarks, Commandant-General, Hunters Group Nigeria, Joshua Shateme, said they were at the Government House to familiarise with the governor and seek avenues of working together.
Shateme commended the Sule’s exemplary leadership, especially in the area of security.
FORMER House of Representatives member, Aminu Jaji, has joined well-meaning Nigerians to oppose negotiation with bandits in the country.
Jaji, who chaired the House Committee on Internal Security and Intelligence in the eighth Assembly, argued that the measure would worsen the security situation in the country.
The ex-lawmaker, who aspired to the governorship of the state under the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019, canvassed use of force to rout the men of the underworld.
Speaking to reporters in Abuja yesterday, he wondered why some northern governors would go out of their way to appease bandits with tax-payers’ money to the detriment of the citizenry.
“I am 100 per cent in support of the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, on the use of force against bandits. I said it before now and I repeat it. There is no way you say that you want to reconcile or dialogue with bandits.
“First thing, the government needs to have clear information about the bandits, their strength, their capacity and the source and the people involved in the nefarious activities. I believe if the government has the intelligence, there is no need to dialogue with them,” he said.
