- ADC slams FG for allegedly aiding banditry by paying abductors
African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused the Nigerian federal government of encouraging banditry by striking deals with its perpetrators, rather than bringing them before the law.
The party’s spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi, speaking on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme, Wednesday, alleged that the federal government was “making deals with insurgents” in order to free abducted victims.”
“What is clear to us”, Abdullahi said, “is that the government is making deals with kidnappers. The government is making deals with insurgents.
“Perhaps because there may be different considerations, but perhaps because they want a quick win, they want something to celebrate, then they will not hesitate to make the kind of negotiation or deals that they are doing. They are doing deals with insurgents. They can’t deny that.”
Responding to concerns that he was suggesting official complicity, Abdullahi said: “Leave the issue of how much they paid them, but the point is that you said you talked to them, and they agreed to release the people they captured.
“Now it means that you are in contact with them. You knew them, so why didn’t you arrest them?
“Has a single arrest been made? Because for you to talk to them to agree to release the people they kidnapped means that you know where they were, and you actually had conversations with them — whether you begged them or you bribed them or you did whatever — then they agreed to release those people.
“They [the government] had conversations with them [bandits]. So you mean these people just agreed to surrender?
“They were asking for N100 million per victim. So, you mean you just went to them and said, ‘OK. Don’t do this again.’”
Abdullahi explained that the government was inadvertently deepening the “banditry economy”.
“I’m not questioning the intentions. The intention was to rescue. But what we are saying is that the probable unintended consequence is that the government, by doing deals with kidnappers, is unwittingly reinforcing the banditry economy because you see what happened in the Ekiti local government,” he said.
“After the release of the Eruku churchgoers, what happened the following day? The very next day, they went to Isapa, a neighbouring community, and abducted 11 people. Up to now, those 11 people are still in captivity.
“So that is a danger of making deals with kidnappers, with criminals and terrorists, because when you make this with them, you are actually admitting that you are powerless, you are actually showcasing your vulnerability, and you are encouraging them to do more.”
While expressing happiness over the release of the kidnappees, the ADC spokesman noted that the approach was unsustainable.
He added that the closure of schools to prevent further attacks implied that the government could no longer guarantee the safety of educational institutions.
“When you close schools because bandits could go and kidnap children, what you are saying is that, ‘I’m no longer capable of protecting my schools.’
“And don’t forget the ideology of Boko Haram is that Western education is forbidden.
“So by shutting down schools, you are reinforcing the Boko Haram ideology.”
Abdullahi rejected accusation that the ADC was encouraging insecurity or seeking US backing against Nigeria.
He was speaking against the background of the recent abductions of students in Kebbi and Niger States, as well as Kwara State church attack which left three persons dead, and the way the abductees were released with nothing said about kiliing or arresting their abductors.
Earlier in an interview with Arise TV, Monday, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, said the latest releases of kidnappees were effected by the genius of the DSS and the military.
He said the gunmen knew that if they did not cooperate, they were going to be “pummelled”.
Onanuga added that a kinetic approach would have been counterproductive because terrorists often use abductees as “human shields”, which could result in “collateral damage.”
