The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum has faulted former Governor of Zamfara State, Ahmad Yerima, for advising President Bola Tinubu to negotiate with bandits terrorising residents of states in the North-West geopolitical zone for years.
The President of the Forum, Yerima Shettima, who spoke to Channels Television in an exclusive interview in Kaduna, also asked President Bola Tinubu to ignore the advice by Yerima, and instead unleash military action on the criminal elements.
During his visit to the President on Monday, the ex-governor advised the President to consider negotiating and granting amnesty to “repentant” bandits like the late President Umaru Yar’Adua did for the Niger Delta militants.
However, the Arewa Youth President described Yerima’s call as unnecessary and unreasonable, noting that the bandits have no legitimate reason for their nefarious activities unlike the Niger Delta militants whose agitations for resource control and good governance was legitimate and reasonable.
While warning on the dire consequences of negotiating with bandits that have killed thousands of innocent citizens and collected millions of naira as ransom, Shettima blamed past governors in the zone and the previous service chiefs for not doing enough to stop the incessant attacks.
He, therefore, called on the new governors and service chiefs to work in synergy to win the war against banditry and other related crimes within the North-West and other troubled parts of the country.
