16102021 - Southeast Gov INEC top official in trouble over $4m bribe

10—SATURDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 16, 2021
BANDITRY:
What changed
El-Rufai, Masari,
Matawalle, Bello?
•Ozekhome, Sani clash over amnesty for terrorists
•No responsible governor will grant amnesty to terrorists- CISLAC
By Dirisu Yakubu
To everything, there is a
season and a time for
every purpose under
heaven; a time to be born
and a time to die; a time to
plant and a time to uproot,”
says the Holy Scriptures.
Given the universal
application of these
words; it is safe to add
that there is a time to
declare a definite
position and a time to
shift from same
position. Depending on
where one stands, the
figure ‘six’ can also be a
‘nine.’
Barely a year in office
as governor of Kaduna
state, Nasir El-Rufai
won the hearts of
Nigerians when he
revealed that the
perennial
reckless killings
in Southern
Kaduna were
coming to an
end. The
government he
led, he noted
had identified
the killers and
gave them
financial
package to bury
the hatchet.
Addressing a
press conference
in December
2016, the
governor had
said, “For
southern Kaduna, we didn’t understand
what was going on and we decided to set
up a committee under Gen. Martin
Luther Agwai (retd) to find out what was
going on there. What was established was
that the root of the problem has a history
starting from the 2011 post-election
violence.
“Fulani herdsmen from across Africa
bring their cattle down towards Middle
Belt and Southern Nigeria. The moment
the rains start around March/April, they
start moving them up to go back to their
various communities and countries.
Unfortunately, it was when they were
moving up with their cattle across
Southern Kaduna that the elections of
2011 took place and the crisis trapped
•Masari • Matawalle •El-rufai
some of them.
“Some of them were from Niger,
Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal.
Fulani are in 14 African countries and
they traverse this country with the cattle.
So, many of these people were killed,
cattle lost and they organised themselves
and came back to revenge.
“So, a lot of what was happening in
Southern Kaduna was actually from
outside Nigeria. We got a hint that the
late Governor Patrick Yakowa got this
information and he sent someone to go
round some of these Fulani communities,
but of course after he died, the whole
thing stopped. That is what we inherited
but the Agwai committee established that.
“We took certain steps. We got a group
North. Speaking in Katsina on August 2,
2019, Governor Aminu Masari whose
state of Katsina has had its share of
bloodletting argued that a way out of the
killings perpetrated by herders was for
them to be granted amnesty.
Reading a communiqué issued by the
North-West governors at the end of a
meeting with security agents, vigilante
group and herdsmen, Masari had this to
say: “As from today, no vigilante group
member or volunteers should attack or
kill any herdsman, as sacrifice must be
made by both sides to ensure peace reign.
“Herdsmen and their families should be
allowed to go about their normal
businesses, attend markets and worship
places without molestation provided they
don’t carry arms. Those bandits who
rustled animals from communities should
immediately return them to the
government or Miyetti Allah Cattle
Breeders Association.
“Bandits should surrender their
weapons and immediately release all
those kidnapped and now under their
custody. We are happy that we have seen
some releases of kidnapped victims from
Zamfara and other states.”
Echoing Masari’s remarks at the
meeting, Zamafara state governor, Bello
Matawalle told the bandits, “the
governors took a uniform measure; you
should also take a uniform decision not
to rustle animals, kidnap or kill anyone.
You should immediately release all
people in your custody in order to show
the world that you have truly repented.”
Masari was captured in a telling
photograph with a bandit hanging AK-47
across his shoulders at the end of that
meeting even as prominent Nigerians
doubted the sincerity on the part of
the bandits to honour the peace
agreement.
Events of the past few
years have so far revealed
the futility in trusting
criminals to keep the
pledge of staying away
from their evil ways.
From Kaduna to
Katsina, Zamfara to
Plateau, Borno to
Niger down to the
Federal Capital
Territory, gunmen
have not stopped
killing. When they
are not
slaughtering the
throats of the
innocent people
including women
and children;
they are
kidnapping
students and
demanding
millions of
naira as
ransom.
Having seen
the error in
parting with
huge sums of
money in hope
that the killers
would
renounce their
evil doings, the
governors have
since taken a
stand against
amnesty for
the criminals,
with El-Rufai
being the most
vociferous.
The governor in many outings in recent
times has continued to rule out
negotiations with gunmen, insisting that
security agents have a duty to crush them
for peace to reign. In April this year as
guest of a radio station in Kaduna, El-
Rufai reiterated this position when he
ruled out payment of ransom for
abducted Greenfield University students,
saying even if his child was among the
abducted, he would rather pray for the
repose of his soul than paying ransom.
“I mean it and I will say it again here.
Even if my son is kidnapped, I will rather
pray for him to make heaven instead,
because I won’t pay any ransom,” he
of people
that were going round trying to trace
some of these people in Cameroon, Niger
Republic and so on to tell them that there
is a new governor who is Fulani like them
and has no problem paying
compensations for lives lost and he is
begging them to stop killing.
“In most of the communities, once that
appeal was made to them, they said they
have forgiven. There was one or two that
asked for monetary compensation. As
recently as two weeks ago, the team went
to Niger Republic to attend one Fulani
gathering that they hold every year with a
message from me.”
El-Rufai wasn’t alone in this push to use
non-kinetic means to end banditry in the Continues on page 11