Community leaders and council chairmen from Charanchi and Batagarawa local government areas in Katsina State on Saturday signed a peace agreement with a group of armed men otherwise called bandits.
At the meeting, one of the armed men addressed residents directly, saying the insurgency and kidnappings were shaped by wider political decisions rather than only by local actors.
“It was the government that wanted us to engage in banditry, but now it has called us and told us to stop. Therefore, by God’s grace, we have stopped from today,” said one of the bandits during the peace meeting between Batagarawa and Charanchi held on Saturday.
“If the government wants all this insecurity to end, they have the power to end it, but they do not want it to end. For the past two months, we have been trying to initiate a peace talk, but we were unable to because they did not know where we were hiding.
“When they finally decided to meet us, they were able to find and talk to us today. Peaceful coexistence and the end of insecurity depend on the Nigerian leaders. If they want us to keep striking and attacking, we will. But if they want peace, we will also make it happen.
“We do not have the power or wisdom to bring peace to the country except through the Nigerian government because everything is under their control. Despite people saying that we are attacking, it is the government that made us do it.
“If they do not want us to attack or kidnap people, they can stop it. However, today they were the ones who called us, and by God’s grace, we have stopped from today. You oppressed citizens, if you want to cry, do not cry with us, the terrorists, but cry with your government, for they are the ones who made us do what we have been doing,” the bandit said.
Previously, SaharaReporters reported that Kaduna-based Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi defended bandits terrorising northern Nigeria, claiming they are on revenge missions rather than waging unprovoked violence.
Gumi, who has consistently courted public outrage over his sympathy for terrorists, made the remarks during an interview on Trust TV on Friday, which SaharaReporters monitored.
The cleric argued that the Fulani herdsmen and bandit groups do not attack people without any cause.
“The former governor of Bauchi State, Isa Yuguda, was able to go with a government delegation into the bush, and they met more than five thousand bandits. They are all complaining. Those who have lost their parents, those who have lost their brothers, those who have suffered hostility too,” Gumi said.
While admitting that the killings carried out by bandits were wrong and obnoxious, the cleric maintained that the attackers were motivated by grievances and vengeance, not sheer brutality.
“Yes, I know they have killed, and it is wrong to kill anybody innocent. This is absolutely an obnoxious thing to do. We do not support that. But if you know their psychology, they are on a revenge mission,” he said.
Gumi, who has long advocated amnesty and negotiation for bandits, further claimed that Fulani herdsmen had lived peacefully with other ethnic groups for centuries and are only reacting to injustices they suffered.
“Everybody knows the herdsmen, as well as the Fulani herdsmen. They do not just attack people. We have been living with them for centuries. They do not attack people without any cause,” he insisted.
He urged the Tinubu administration to unify and rehabilitate the armed groups instead of launching military offensives against them.
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