It is not Government’s job to ask bandits to repent – El-Rufai

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has reiterated his stand that his administration won’t negotiate with bandits.

He said this following a call by Sheikh Gumi for a peace deal with bandits in the wake of bandits’ attacks on several northern states.

Reacting to this, El-Rufai stated that his job as governor is to enforce the law and help prosecute people who commit offences, and not negotiate with bandits.

He made this comment at an expanded meeting of the state security council on Tuesday.

“We will not engage with bandits or kidnappers. Private citizens like clerics and clergymen can do so in their individual capacities, to preach to them and ask them to repent. We also want them to repent but it is not our job to ask them to do so,” he said.

The governor speaking on the way out, stated that the best way to solve the farmer-herder clashes, cattle rustling, and banditry “is for nomadic herdsmen to live more sedentary lives in order for them to be more productive and give their children education and access to better healthcare.”