The Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Prof Is-haq Oloyede has advised the Federal and state governments against negotiating with bandits, saying it will only embolden other criminally-minded persons.
Oloyede, who is also the Registrar/Chief Executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), stating this weighing in the controversy on whether the Federal Government should grant amnesty to bandits like it did Niger Delta militants.
“Let me tell you, in my understanding, there is a difference between criminality and civil rights agitation.
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“To me, what I believe they were doing with the people of the South-South who felt that they have a right that were being trampled upon-that petrol is coming from them and they were not getting enough- is to create something to remedy whatever infractions the nation might have committed against them; it is sort of reparation.
“But for somebody to stand up, kill people, rape people and then say we can negotiate and give them money not to do those things, to me, it doesn’t make sense; it encourages banditry,” Oloyede told Sunday Punch.
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