A former Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, said he would negotiate with bandits if he was in position.
The former minister suggested that exploring other non-kinetic approaches may prove to be better way to end bandit attacks in rural communities.
Shittu who served under former President Muhammadu Buhari stated this on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday.
He opined that he would rather use non-kinetic measures to negotiate with bandits, adding that it is more expensive to use kinetic approach by the military.
He said, “If I am in position, it is not too late to use non-kinetic measures in negotiating with bandits, giving them a promising future. Let us retain them. Many of them are very intelligent, many of them are able-bodied,” Shittu said, adding that the military spending on equipment far outweighed the non-kinetic approach.
The ex-minister said the millions of out-of-school children in Northen Nigeria is a “production factory for banditry” in the country.
Meanwhile Islamic cleric, Sheik Gumi had volunteered to negotiate with bandits for the freedom of the recent mass abduction of schoolchildren in Kaduna State.
He was, however, invited for questioning by security operatives.