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Paying Ransom To Bandits Is Ineffective – Senator Nnamani

  The lawmaker representing Enugu East senatorial district, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, has faulted the payment of ransom to bandits before releasing their victims in captivity. … Continue reading Paying Ransom To Bandits Is Ineffective – Senator Nnamani


A file photo of guns displayed on a table.
A file photo of guns displayed on a table.

 

The lawmaker representing Enugu East senatorial district, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, has faulted the payment of ransom to bandits before releasing their victims in captivity.

Although he is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the senator aligned himself with the position of some prominent members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), including Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, who have condemned the idea of paying money to bandits.

“Talking about ransom, paying ransom is ineffective because clearly, these different groups do not have the same goals.

“In addition, the leadership is different. So, ransom would not work; rather, it could incentivise internal terrorism also called bandits,” he said when he featured as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

He added, “I believe there is a competition to win the souls of the young Nigerian who elects to be a bandit or a terrorist. The government has to compete.

“There is competition between government and the terrorists’/bandits’ leaders. I believe the government has to do something to keep them within their system.”

According to Nnamani who is also a former governor of Enugu State, the government should try to win the youths through adult literary education, improve their welfare, or engage them in skill acquisition programmes.

 

He also recommended aggressive tackling of unemployment and poverty in the country as means to discourage the young generation from engaging in criminal and violent activities.

On the call for the creation of state police to address the issue of insecurity, the lawmaker believes that is not an option.

He opined that adopting state police as a solution to the security challenges would be a wrong move because the factors (imbalance and injustice) that led to the abolition of regional police were still very much available.

The former governor, however, suggested a conference of ethnic nationalities to help address the imbalance said to have been created by the Constitution.