Niger lawmaker kicks against ransom, advocates severe punishment for bandits

Negotiating with armed bandits and paying them ransom for the release of their victims should be discouraged, a member of the Niger State House of Assembly Malik Madaki Bosso has said.

He noted that negotiating with the armed bandits and paying them ransom for the release of their victims is way of empowering them to carry out their attacks on innocent Nigerians.

The lawmaker was of the view that the ransom paid to them is used in the purchase of more weapons to carry out their deadly attacks on the people, stressing the need for a total onslaught against them by the relevant security agencies.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with CAPITAL POST in Minna during the weekend, Malik Madaki explained that appropriate and decisive action should be taken against them by the relevant security agencies to dislodge them from their forests.

He stated that he is in support of some of the governors that said they are not ready to negotiate with the bandits in their state, insisting that goverment at all levels should pull out their resources to rid them out of their enclaves by making their states inhabitable for them to carry out their attacks on innocent citizens.

According to the lawmaker, armed bandits have held the entire part of the country to ransom for years with the ill- gotten money they made from their victims, adding that it is in the interest of the generality of the country that a decisive action is taken to dislodge them.

“I don’t see any reason to enter into any negotiation with these armed bandits.

“Negotiating with them and paying them ransom is encouraging them to continue taking arms on Nigerians.

“It is high time for a decisive action to be taken against them. It is the ransom they collect they use in buying the sophisticated weapons they use in attacking their victims freely.

“Honestly I’m not supporting any negotiation with these bandits in any way. For me, it is better for goverment at all levels to take appropriate action against them” he asserted.

Malik Madaki who is the chairman House Committee on Labour matters in the Niger State House of Assembly warned that dialoguing with the armed bandits would not bring an end to the increasing rates of banditry attacks in the North, particularly in Niger, Kaduna and Zamfara states calling on the three state governors to pull out their resources to launch a total onslaught against them.

Speaking further, Madaki said the State House of Assembly would amend the anti bandits law to take stiff penalty against armed bandit and their informants which according to him, if amended, it would among others take appropriate punitive measure against them.

He observed that the activities of informants of the armed bandits who give information on the movement of their victims are more dangerous than the bandits stating that amendment of the law would take appropriate punitive measure against the informants that leave within the community.

He then appealed to the Judiciary to as a matter of necessity apply severe punitive measure against the informants to serve as a deterrent to others.