Nigerian elder statesman and Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark has criticised the calls to grant amnesty to bandits responsible for the insecurity in the north.
Clark stated that comparing the agitations in the Niger Delta to the killings in the northern part of the country was both ignorant and myopic.
During a press briefing in Abuja, Clark expressed his disbelief at Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi’s pleas for amnesty for the bandits, stating that such a proposition defies logic.
He firmly asserted that the amnesty program should not be used as a means to reward mass murderers, and emphasized that it was not a blanket idea to be invoked or politicized.
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He said:
“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.
“I must commend the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), for their forthrightness in condemning the advice of Ahmed Yerima to President Bola Tinubu in which he said the president should grant amnesty to the murderous bandits.
“The amnesty advocates ignore the fact that many of the bandits are not even Nigerians. They also mistake amnesty for a blanket idea, to be politicised or invoked to reward mass murderers. It is not.
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“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.”
The newly appointed Chief of Army Staff, Major General Taoreed Lagabaja, recently made statements calling for the scrapping of the programme.
The elder statesman urged President Bola Tinubu to disregard the advice of those who claimed that the programme has not contributed to the peace in the Niger Delta.
He said:
“I strongly, therefore, appeal to Mr President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, not to be carried away by various statements by some uninformed Nigerians that the Amnesty Programme in Niger Delta has not contributed to the peace in the Niger Delta, it has, contrary to their misgivings.
“I therefore advise the President to pay special attention to the survival of the Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta which still has some phases, and the word ‘Interim’ should be removed from the ‘Administrator’ because the impression being given by our people is that the interim is there because the Federal Government wants to scrap the Programme.
“Meanwhile, I sincerely appeal to our youths to remain patient and not to do anything to affect the smooth operation of the oil companies while we continue to fight for our rights legitimately.”
