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By Daniel Kanu
The Federal Government uninspiring response to widespread insecurity in the country has continued to generate national discourse and diverse conversations on how to effectively deal with the menace.
At the moment, Nigeria’s insecurity has reached a worrisome level, where the safety of lives and property is no longer guaranteed given the no-clear united security strategies.
The daily reoccurrence in the land has spread to all parts and strata of the country, leaving Nigerians with no place to run to for safety.
Going by reports, this daily reoccurrence of tragedies in various forms such as kidnapping, banditry, insurgency, armed robbery, terrorism, among others, are witnessed at people’s homes, schools, churches, mosques, business places, marketplaces, farms, the police stations, where people usually run to for safety and even the Government Houses, among other places.
Latest statistics showed that in the eight months of President Bola Tinubu’s leadership, 2,423 Nigerians have been killed and 1,872 abducted.
The disgusting situation has become so alarming that the activities of these perpetuators have put the entire security apparatus of the nation to shame.
Insecurity, no doubt, has become an issue consuming the nation’s energy, but also one that the Nigerian government, sadly enough, continues to lose the war.
As the search for a lasting solution on how to tackle the siege, which seems to have become intractable to the Tinubu government continues to resound, there are discussions in some quarters that granting amnesty to the aggressors’ and assaulters will go a long way to address the ugly situation and help in stamping out the satanic scourge.
Despite the huge sums being claimed by the government to have been spent to curb insecurity, there are no signs that the wave is abating.
Last week, a leader of ex-Niger Delta agitators, Eshanakpe Israel, a.k.a. Akpodoro, who perhaps, is talking from experience, urged President Tinubu to grant amnesty to the insurgents, kidnappers, bandits, ethnic militias, among others, as a way towards curbing the worsening insecurity in the land.
Akpodoro enjoined Tinubu to emulate the late President Umaru Yar’Adua by granting amnesty to the insurgents, bandits and ethnic militias currently destabilising the country.
The ex-militant who holds the honorary title of the Mayor of Urhoboland said that it has become imperative for the Federal Government to adopt a carrot-and-stick approach to resolve the security challenge because military might alone would not be enough to tackle it.
He advocated that a new amnesty programme coordinated by state governors should be instituted to get thousands of criminal elements in every state to lay down their arms and become part of the community policing structure in their respective domains.
This, he added, “is because it is the best approach to stem the tide of insecurity currently ravaging the country”.
Akpodoro said the repentant armed men would be trained by the government under the proposed new amnesty programme and paid stipends monthly for several years “until they are morally fit to eke out a living”.
He added that the same beneficiaries of the programme would in turn be conscripted into civilian components of the state security apparatus.
Akpodoro, in a statement made available to Sunday Sun, said: “Granting amnesty to repentant bandits, insurgents, hostage takers and other sundry criminals will automatically cut down the crime rate in the country and this can begin with a national summit of critical stakeholders on national security to map the strategies for the success of the proposed amnesty programme.”
He noted that the late Yar’Adua would be remembered for his sincerity and boldness in declaring the Presidential Amnesty for the Niger Delta militants.
According to him, “little did the nation know that the non-kinetic approach could stem the tide of the raging military onslaught that was fast metamorphosing into full-blown war.
“Giving the then insurgents shield was the terrain (creeks), which the alien forces couldn’t navigate, giving the militants more impetus to launch an offensive on the oil and gas facilities then. During those confrontations, the militants broke into camps feeding their central command information and claiming victory most of the time. Jomo Gbomo was handy at every point in time to announce every progress made by the rag-tag militias.
“It was an era marked by ethnic agitations and responses from the government at the time. Then, the military reaction was that of kinetic approach which in every sense of it wasn’t successful as it ended in no victor, no vanquished at the declaration of the amnesty programme.”
Akpodoro counselled Tinubu to liaise with state governments to grant amnesty to all criminal elements in the country under the national security architecture.
He urged the various levels of government to put security votes to use effectively, adding that it is not meant to be pocketed by the helmsmen at the states.
The ex-militant leader disclosed that hardened criminals have taken over the entire geo-graphical space of the country with different appellations and that each state is host to about 5,000 such suspected criminals. Against this background, he said state governments must bear part of the financial burden of the proposed amnesty.
He said that most criminals are willing to drop their arms if they are given the assurance of their safety and protection by the authorities.
“Give them amnesty and watch kidnappers, insurgents and bandits drop their arms.
“We as a people have complained for too long. Enough is enough for lamentations, and this is the only seeming way to carry everybody along in our national drive to end security threats.
“Our forests harbour criminals, and only repentant criminals can uproot them. Please send them to the creeks, forests, and highways as we see in both the Kogi and Edo axis of our highways and see crimes reduced drastically. Disarmament and rehabilitation are the way out of our security quagmire,” he strongly believed.
He urged the Federal Government to involve the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in the re-orientation of the youth population, to tinker with their value system.
He also cautioned that the political elite, too, would have to be challenged to parade wealth less than they do so as not to inadvertently provoke the younger generations to take to crimes.
Ex-militant Akpodoro is not alone in his position of granting amnesty to the bandits, but there are other respondents who are of the view that bandits, kidnappers, terrorists are simply criminals and should be made to face the wrath of the law when caught.
Some Nigerians who expressed concern to Sunday Sun, over the granting of amnesty by the Federal Government to some bandits and terrorists, lamented that the pardoning policy would rather worsen the country’s insecurity scale.
They said that bandits were involved in kidnapping, maiming and killing of innocent citizens and should be prosecuted and punished after arrest, and not pardoned.
They said that pardoning the perpetrators would continue to encourage the committing of evil and consequently lead to an increase in deaths of Nigerians, deter investors and collapse the economy of the nation.
Professor of International Relations at the University of Lagos, David Aworawo asked the government to simply declare them criminal terrorists and take them out, arguing that “they are criminals and must be treated as such rather than according them such niceties of amnesty.”
Also Prof Kila , director, Commonwealth Institute of Advanced and Professional Studies said that the menace is escalating by the day and causing collateral damage to an extent that the country has become a killing field that must not be tolerated by any responsible government.
“Among us there are bad people. Provide jobs , educate the people, but deal with criminals. Nigeria is becoming a killing field and drowning in the ocean of insecurity. The government is losing the war on banditry and others, they need to deploy technology, fight poverty, but amnesty is out of it,” he told Sunday Sun.
Also, the Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Auchi, Most Rev. Gabriel Dunia, wants the government to do everything needed to name and prosecute all the accomplices in the act of terrorism.
Dunia said that it had become imperative that sponsors of insecurity must be specifically identified; adding that their motives were aimed at destabilising the nation.
“Insecurity has set Nigeria on the reverse gear. Our nation has suffered untold hardships and setbacks.
‘’Bandits and other terrorist organisations have had a field day, causing havoc to all citizens of this country either directly or indirectly. Sponsors must be named and prosecuted and we must banish the idea of granting amnesty,’’ he said.
Reacting to the issue also, Comrade Henry Ekini, national legal adviser, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) in Rivers, recommended maximum punishment for those involved in terrorism and banditry to discourage others intending to do so.
Hear him: “As much as the law permits certain authority to grant pardon, crimes that are destructive shouldn’t be considered for clemency.
“Terrorists and bandits should not be considered for state pardon because their criminal activities run contrary to public policy and interest.
“If public interest is directed at eliminating terrorism, banditry and even corruption, then it would be contradictory that government is fighting terrorists and on the other hand granting them amnesty.’’
Ekini, however, said that despite the fact that it would be wrong for the president to give amnesty to terrorists, the law does not restrict him to do so.
“This is so because by law there is no clear classification of what offences that pardon is to be granted.
“But for public confidence and interest, there shouldn’t be a consideration for terrorists and bandits; they should be subjected to maximum punishment,” he said.
He also said that it would be wrong for the Federal Government to reveal the names of perceived sponsors of terrorism without clear evidence.
“Where this can be justified is if investigation provides credible evidence by security agencies linking a person to sponsoring terrorism, with the involvement of the court,” he noted.
In her opinion, Mrs Rebecca Isieke, a security expert, said that it was not proper for the government to consider amnesty as an option as what the bandits and terrorists are doing is sheer criminality.
She told Sunday Sun that “we know that insecurity is one of the social ills that threaten humanity’s existence, create fear within its environment and limit its free movement, but it is the responsibility of every responsible government to properly address it because it is the key reason for any government to be in existence.
“As a government, your key and primary responsibility is to protect lives and property and the welfare of the citizens and if you cannot do such, there is no reason to continue to be in power than to simply resign. Granting amnesty can never be an option to secure peace from common criminals.”
Also, Martin Onovo, an engineer and political commentator asked the Federal Government not to make any such consideration of granting amnesty to bandits, kidnappers, terrorists, among others.
Onovo who was the 2015 presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP), told Sunday Sun that such move would aggravate the insecurity in the country.
His words: “The FG must not grant amnesty to bandits, kidnappers and terrorists because that will aggravate the insecurity in Nigeria. The previous attempt to rehabilitate them through the 2009 ‘Operation Safe Corridor’ led to the amplified terrorism we have in Nigeria, now.
“Terrorism cannot be made profitable. If terrorism is made profitable through amnesty, terrorism will only increase. We know from verified super-abundant evidence in the public domain, that the ruling party cannot claim ignorant of what is happening because they are the direct sponsor of insecurity and terrorism in Nigeria.
“The evidence includes: the confession of Alhaji Kawu Baraje, one of the founding fathers of the ruling party. The direct connection of the notorious terrorist Kabiru Sokoto to Alhaji Kassim Shetima. The payments made to terrorists operating in Kaduna State by Alhaji el-Rufai. The clear and consistent statements made by former president, General Muhammadu Buhari in support of the terrorists.
“The convictions of Nigerian terrorist financers in a Dubai court and their confirmed connection to very high government officials in Nigeria. The government’s concealment of the names of the 400 terrorism sponsors it identified and the failure to prosecute them. The physical evidence of terrorists operating with arms from Nigerian security forces in Cross River and Plateau states.
“The disclosures by Sheik Gumi of collaborating with security officials in his interactions with terrorists. The public disclosures by Nigerian military Generals that were involved in counter-terrorism operations. Granting amnesty to terrorists will be a legitimization of terrorism in Nigeria.
“The legitimization of terrorism will only aggravate the insecurity in Nigeria. The unpatriotic proposition that amnesty for terrorists will mitigate insecurity in Nigeria is a deceitful attempt to aggravate terrorism in Nigeria. We suspect that the proposition is sponsored by the same sponsors of terrorism in Nigeria. This idea was previously tried with the ‘Operation Safe Corridor’ and terrorism has grown much worse.”
Onovo insisted that apprehended bandits and terrorists have to be severely punished so that those who are committing the same crime will be deterred from doing so.
Going by the Sunday Sun survey, the majority of respondents believe that pardoning the perpetrators would continue to encourage the committing of the evils, leading to escalation and increase in deaths of Nigerians, deter investors and collapse the economy of the nation.
