Babagana Monguno, national security adviser (NSA), says
Ahmad Gumi, Islamic cleric, has offered to help the government in tackling
insecurity.
Gumi who has been meeting with suspected bandits terrorising
communities in the north-west and in the north-central had likened them to
militants in the Niger-Delta, and asked that they are not tagged criminals.
He had also called on the federal government to grant
blanket amnesty to the bandits.
At a state house briefing on Thursday, Monguno, while fielding questions from journalists, said he had met with Gumi, and that he is waiting to see how the cleric could help the government.
“Sheik Gumi is doing what he’s doing because he believes in
what he’s doing. He’s a Nigerian and under the constitution he can talk to
anybody. He can deal with anybody,” he said.
“I met with him when I went with the service chiefs to
Kaduna, and we spoke generally during the meeting and he resolved to help
government. We are waiting for him. That’s all I can say.”
The NSA said the government is not averse to holding talks
with bandits, but that it cannot negotiate with people who are unreliable.
“While government is not averse to talking with these
entities, it also has to fully apply its weight. You can’t negotiate with
people who are unreliable and who will continue to hurt society,” he said.
“We will apply the full weight of the government to deal
with these criminals.
“These are not people looking for anything that is genuine
or legitimate, they’re just out to take calculated measures to inflict pain and
violence on innocent people. We must deal with them the way they need to be
dealt with. We will fully assert the government’s will.”
The NSA also said President Muhammadu Buhari has directed
that mercenaries must not be engaged in fighting insecurity in the country.
There have been calls by governors in the north-east for the
federal government to engage mercenaries.
But Monguno said Nigeria has all the resources needed to
fight, but has been underutilised.
“When this administration came in, it’s true, we had these
mercenaries helping out in the north-east. But the directive of the commander
in chief is that we do not engage mercenaries when we have our own people to
deal with this problem,” he said.
“This is basically a presidential directive. And there are
so many issues when you come to the issue of mercenaries. It has to do with the
issue of national pride also. I know you’d say can pride be more of a concern
than our security? I do understand that.
“But what we are
looking at here is that we have the resources, it’s just misapplication or
underutilisation that has affected our ability to deal with these people.”
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