A former Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu has urged the President Bola Tinubu-led administration to promise bandits a promising future by negotiating with them.
Shittu revealed that most of the unknown gunmen are able-bodied men whom the Federal Government should retain.
The ex minister under former president, Muhammadu Buhari led government made this known on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday.
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.
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“The more skills you are able to give to the largest number of them, the less the propensity for them to go back (to crime) if they are assured that a promising future awaits them after going through the deradicalisation processes and skills’ training.
“At the end of the day, the amount of money we are spending on the Armed Forces to confront these people, it looks like their number is endless because in the bush we have have thousands of groups, particularly in the North-West and North-East.
“So, instead of wasting too much money on acquiring arms and ammunition, let us rearrange, let us find a way, after every war, there must still be coming to the round table, negotiate.”
