The leader of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark has stated that it was criminal equating the ongoing amnesty program in the South-South region with the calls for amnesty for bandits and terrorists in the Northern region. Nigerian elder statesman, addressing reporters on Wednesday in Abuja said, “My first reaction to those who compare the murderous blood sucking bandits from the northern part of the country with the legitimate agitators from the Niger Delta, is that of pity at their ignorance on national affairs and myopicism”.
Ahmed Yerima, a former Governor of Zamfara State, had asked President Bola Tinubu to grant amnesty to bandits causing mayhem in North-West and North-Central Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the Chief of Defence Staff, Taoreed Lagbaja, said the amnesty program has failed in Zamfara and other States.
Pa Clark said, “Like others before him, Yerima is confusing two contemporary security issues, blatant criminality by the bandits in the North, and agitation over oil resources in Niger Delta”.
Added that, “Ahmad Gumi, an Islamic cleric, has repeatedly pleaded for amnesty for the bandits. He constantly defies logic by claiming that the bandits kill because of their ‘maltreatment’ by the Nigerian state.
The amnesty advocates ignore the fact that many of the bandits are not even Nigerians”.
Clark stated that the remonstration of the Niger Delta youths arose as a result of the dehumanization, environmental pollution, destruction of natural source of income.
“They also mistake amnesty for a blanket idea, to be politicized or invoked to reward mass murderers. It is not. Amnesty worked in the Niger Delta primarily because its militants anchored their fight on the sound economic and federalist principle of resource control. With their people alienated from the oil wealth extracted from their land, and the environmental despoliation in the region, the agitators had legitimate demands”.
“But the blood-thirsty bandits ravaging the North have no legitimate, political, or economic claim that Nigeria is obliged to countenance. Because of the bandits, killer Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram/ISWAP/Ansaru and IPOB, the 2023 Global Terrorism Index ranks Nigeria as the eighth most terrorized country in the world”.
“Together, these terrorist groups slaughtered 63,111 Nigerians between 2015 and May 2023, the National Security Tracker estimated. Therefore, any deal with them translates to rewarding mindless criminality. As some North-West States discovered, negotiating with amorphous groups of bandits with no central command or leadership has no positive outcome” he said.
Chief Clark commended the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), for their bluntness to criticize Yerima’s recommendation to President Tinubu, while appreciating other prominent Northern Nigerians who also condemned Yerima’s opinion.
