‘Bandits May Start Dictating To Gov’t’ – NHRC Advises Zamfara Gov Against Negotiating With Kidnappers

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has advised Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, against negotiating with criminals who engage in kidnapping for ransom.

The NHRC was reacting to the abduction of about 300 students in Jangebe, Zamfara State, by bandits.

The commission held that bandits may become emboldened in their criminal acts if the government does not review its strategies by stopping negotiations with them and securing the state.

The Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Tony Ojukwu Esq, disclosed this in a statement issued on Saturday by the Commission’s Deputy Director,Public Affairs, Fatimah Agwai Mohammed and made available to THE WHISTLER.

“The Commission is also using this opportunity to call on the Zamfara state government to reconsider its concept of repentant bandits so that the state government does not elevate criminality to a level where bandits will be dictating conditions for negotiations with government,” it stated.

Ojukwu also noted that the rate of crime in Nigeria required urgent and improved security tactics to deal with it.

“The level of insecurity in Nigeria is getting worse by the day and as such poses additional challenge to all the security agencies, particularly the Police, Department of State Service (DSS) and Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) to do the needful to restore citizens’ confidence in government to protect them”, Ojukwu added.

He pleaded with the abductors to release the students unhurt and unconditionally, while also urging parents and those concerned not to lose faith in the federal government’s efforts to bring them back home.

Furthermore, the NHRC called for the “implementation of the Child’s Rights Act 2003″, adding that it will guarantee ” rights to free and compulsory education at least up to Senior Secondary School level”