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Sunday Aborisade, Abuja
The vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 general elections, Peter Obi, has said he disagreed with those advocating payment of ransom and granting amnesty for bandits.
He said doing so would encourage criminality in the country.
Obi stated this in an interview with journalists on the sideline of the presentation of a book, ‘Made in Aba,’ an autobiography of the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, in Abuja on Monday.
He said, “By paying a ransom, you’re paying people who aren’t productive. People are making money without being productive.
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Published 21 February 2021
The All Progressives Congress member representing the Niger East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Sani Musa, tells SUNDAY ABORISADE why he moved a motion for the declaration of a state of emergency on security, update on the abducted Kagara schoolchildren and how to end banditry and insurgency in the country
What
is the update on the abducted Kagara schoolchildren?
The Inspector General of Police has deployed more than 150 operatives of the Mobile Police Special Squad to the area. My sources have told me they have identified the particular area where the bandits have taken the people to. At the moment, based on the aerial view analysis, it has been established that the bandits have forced the schoolchildren and their teachers to wear military camouflage. The President, (Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)), has given an order that the schoolchildren and their teachers should be returned home unharme
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Published 17 February 2021
From the moral, political, social and economic perspectives, an objective and critical analysis of the ever-worsening insecurity situation in the country points to the failing factor on the part of the current leadership, to live up to its constitutional mandate and public expectation to protect the lives of the citizens.
In fact, the very idea of granting amnesty to supposedly ‘repentant’ criminal elements, who are nothing other than rampaging terrorists, bandits and kidnappers, by embracing them with free feeding, clothing, accommodation, all from the public purse is reprehensible, obnoxious, immoral, highly unpatriotic and totally condemnable! On a curious note, some of these beneficiaries are offered western education on a silver platter; the same policy they have been fighting against, going by the interpretation of “Boko Haram”. How hypocritical can some of us get in this country?
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Friday Olokor, Maiharaji Altine James Abraham and Godwin Isenyo
The Middle Belt Forum on Sunday faulted a prominent Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, who asked the Federal Government to deploy budget for security in addressing the demands of bandits.
The National Publicity Secretary of the MBF, Dr Isuwa Dogo, in an interview with one of our correspondents in Jos, stated that it was curious that Gumi could ask government to use taxpayers’ money to meet the demands of bandits, who had been killing Nigerians.
But the Coalition of Northern Groups supported the cleric, saying government should set up a special intervention programme for pastoral communities.