09012021 - Nigeria must stop paying ransom to kidnappers

SATURDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 9, 2021—9
D
r. Mustapha Inuwa is the Secretary to the Government
of Katsina State, SGS who doubles as the Chairman,
Amnesty Programme to end banditry in the state. In this
interview, he bares his mind on series of challenges and
setbacks they are facing in their fight against banditry.
Current waves of
insecurity in Katsina
have continued to be
a source of worry not only
to the state but also the
entire country. What t is the
state government doing to
contain the ugly situation?
It is really an unfortunate
situation we are experiencing
and the worse we experienced
was in the just past year 2020
when the rate of kidnapping
and other forms of
criminality increased in
various places almost on
daily basis. This is where
the largest number, in our
history, of students were
kidnapped by bandits and
fortunately we were able to
rescue them within a period of
just one week. I don’t think there is
anywhere in the world where such a
number was involved and the rescue
operation lasted effectively within three
days, because that was when the
negotiation was started. So, it was
really bad, sad and unfortunate and
the government also has invested a
lot of resources in supporting the
security agencies in this regard.
Now, fortunately, the security
chiefs of the nation were all here
and they realized the
magnitude of the
problem and promised to
strategize and address
this security issue headon,
and from what we
have seen especially
from the police, they are
really coming up with
new strategies. They
brought in a lot of
personnel, stationed
them in concerned Local
government areas
bordering Zamfara axis.
They also brought
vehicles such as APC
that they use to access
and penetrate difficult
areas.
But like we always say, the strategy
that should be adopted to bring these
problems to an end immediately is
when all the states concerned are
involved, when there is a national
platform, under one command that
will direct this fight against these
bandits. Because no matter what a
particular state is doing, if the other
states are not doing the same thing
at the same time, the bandits will
move to the place they consider safe
haven to hide and from where they
will continue to launch their attacks.
For instance, most of the attacks in
Katsina, the bandits come from
Zamfara. They are in the same group, they
organize and move from one place to
another and as we all know, they are
naturally mobile. So it has to be a wellcoordinated
effort by a national platform
where you have the Army, maybe from the
Defense Headquarters to command the
operation at the centre while the state
governors, as political heads of their
respective states, should also come
together and take common positions on
things that will help the military to
achieve what they want to achieve. For
instance, all the governments should
come together and agree, let’s say for
instance, they ban selling of fuel in
border towns and villages and they close
the border markets along the areas. The
request through the National
Communication Commission, NCC, to
temper with the communication system,
because these people communicate with
their colleagues in various areas and
KATSINA SGS ADVISES ON HOW
TO END BANDITRY IN THE NORTH:
Stop paying
ransom to
kidnappers
•Wants govt to rather compensate families of victims
•Recommends joint operation in all states concerned
•Says FG must live up to their responsibility
•Reveals why past peace deals with bandits failed
•90% of bandits who accepted amnesty were killed by other groups
within no time they all converge in
agreed places. So if one state is doing
something and the other is not, it will not
yield the desired results or impact. There
must be joint effort and it must be
spontaneous.
There must also be a synergy between
what the state governments are doing and
what the military are doing. With that, I
believe this issue could be tackled within
the shortest possible time, and I hope by
2021 this will be actualized because if we
keep on using same approach in this fight
we should not expect a different result.
Because since we started the fight against
bandits, it is the same approach. Now, it
has not yielded results, so why don’t we
change the approach?
Another very important thing that the
security agencies need to do is to try to
block their source of fire arms. It is very
clear that most of the arms these bandits
•Inuwa
within a week or so? We can understand it
is a very delicate situation because you
cannot tell somebody whose loved one is
kidnapped not to pay ransom because the
major fear is they will be killed. It is a
dicey situation but people have to make
sacrifices.
Other countries stopped kidnappings
by refusing to pay ransom but anybody
killed in the process, government paid
compensation to the family.
People now connive to kidnap their
relations, associates and
neighbours simply because of what
they will get from ransom
collected. Kidnapping has
become lucrative. We must stop
it by not paying ransom.
Our people too, have to be
up and doing because most
of these people have their
informants among us
especially in the rural
areas. In any village you
go, you have people
informing the bandits
about the movement of
the security. Sometimes,
when the security chase
them, these people
provide them where to
hide. It is really an
unfortunate situation
where people connive
with the bandits to carry
out attack on their
communities. And what
they don’t understand is
that if today they attack
one family, tomorrow it
may be your family that
will be attacked by
another group.
So it is important for the
traditional, religious and
community leaders to
continue to appeal to the
people to be God-fearing to
understand the implication
of supporting these bandits
and their activities.
So the issue is not for only
one sector. The security,
government or communities
must be collective and then we
pray. But we must not pray
without backing it with action
because we Muslims believe
there is nothing beyond Allah’s
control. But it must be prayer
with decisive action against these
people.
Let me take you back on issue
of ransom, here you are
discouraging payment of ransom
and there is controversy
surrounding the release of the
schoolboys. Does it means
ransom was not paid to secure
the release of the Kankara
students?
Not a dime was paid. Take it
from me that not a dime was
given to those people in order to
release these boys.
There are some
uncomplimentary remarks that
the government has not done enough on
this issue of insecurity, what’s your take
on that?
You don’t blame people for holding such
opinions. Some say it out of ignorance
because they don’t know how the
government works. Some don’t know
what is the responsibility of the state and
what he federal government is supposed
to do. What is important to them is that
the government should provide security
for their lives and property, and anything
short of that, they can say anything. As
you know, we inherited this problem and
we promised to bring it to an end. So
people have every right to expect the
government to do just that.
But those who know, will understand
that the state government can only
support the security agencies. They are
not under their command. The governor
cannot direct the military or any other
are using come from Niger Republic. So
it is the responsibility of the federal
agencies, especially the intelligence unit,
to look at ways of how these things are
coming and block it. If you collaborate
with Niger government to block these
sources, I believe you render them very
ineffective and the few ones that are
coming from Plateau state and other parts
of the country, use the intelligence report
to block them as well. But if you allow
this proliferation of fire arms, this issue
will never end.
Another important issue that the
government will need to do is to sensitize
the populace of the implication of paying
ransom. Once ransom will continue to be
paid, these people will find it very
difficult to stop their crime, because in a
situation where you kidnap somebody
and receive millions of naira, tell me what
business will they do to earn this money Continues on page 11