THE Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Abdulmuminu Usman, stated on Tuesday in Katsina that rather than dialogue, it is death that bandits deserve for killing people in the North-West.
Alhaji Usman who spoke at a security stakeholders meeting said since bandits have decided to go after people’s lives, they also don’t deserve to live.
He lamented the delay in the prosecution and punishment of suspected bandits, saying it “is not good in serving as deterrent to other criminals” just as he urged governments at all level to rise and punish the bandits accordingly.
He stressed that no one should resort to banditry in the name of settling scores. The Emir’s comment is a rebuke of people like controversial Islamic cleric, Sheik Abubakar Gumi, who has been leading a campaign for dialogue with the bandits towards granting them amnesty from punishment for their criminal activities.
The North-West geopolitical zone of the country has overtime been consumed by insecurity marked by kidnapping for ransom, killing of people and burning down of rural communities.
In a bid to check the excesses of bandits, governments in some of the states like Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Sokoto have cut telecommunications services, banned the sale of petrol in containers and suspended weekly markets among other measures taken to support a military operation against the bandits.
