Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, yesterday disagreed with prominent Islamic scholar, Sheikh Gumi, that the federal government should dialogue with bandits, instead of waging war against them.

After meeting with the bandits in the forest in Zamfara State, Sheikh Gumi had asked the federal government to use security budget to address the bandits’ demands, claiming that most of them had lost all their possessions to cattle rustling and extortion.
Governor el-Rufai in an interview with BBC Hausa, said the bandits should not be forgiven for taking arms against the country, stressing that they should also not be compensated.

He reiterated the fact that Kaduna was at war with the criminal elements, pointing out that ” my administration is at war with the bandits and so we cannot negotiate. Eliminating them is the only solution to banditry.”

El-Rufai added that the lack of unity among governors of the north-western states was also hindering the fight against banditry.

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has reacted to Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s admission to the atrocities being committed by Fulani herdsmen across the country.

The Kaduna State Governor, had in an interview with the BBC Hausa, said that Fulani herdsmen who carry out banditry kill ‘mercilessly’ because they do not believe in religion.

Speaking further, Nnamdi Kanu noted that the entitlement mentality of the North caused the 1966 civil war and warned that the country is most likely to enter another one.