Fulani bandits more dangerous than Boko Haram-ISWAP terrorists – Mamu

Tukur Mamu, the negotiator whose effort has been instrumental to the release of some of the abducted passengers on the Abuja-Kaduna train service says the best way to solve the problem of terrorism and banditry ravaging the country is to penetrate the groups.

Mamu, media consultant to Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, who himself had been involved in finding solution to the problem of insecurity in Nigeria, especially in the north west, said he has withdrawn from further securing the release of remaining abducted train passengers.

He cited threats to his life and frustration to his efforts, not necessarily from the bandits and terrorists but from other vested interests in the supposed fight against insecurity, including, ironically, security agencies and government officials.

Speaking on a live television interview programme from Kaduna, on Thursday, Mamu said the best way to tackle the problem of insecurity in the country is to penetrate the various terrorist groups and winning them over with superior argument.

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“What I want us to understand is that one cannot compare his psyche and sense of reasoning with somebody with so much ignorance or distorted belief.

“The best way to deal with a difficult situation like that is to penetrate them by way of engaging them because if you engage somebody, especially with superior argument, making him to understand the reality of the situation, I can tell you it’s something that can be achieved,” he said.

Mamu shared his personal experience about occasions he had to intervene to disabuse threats by the bandits to kill their innocent victims by referencing the portion of the Islamic teaching that forbids such action.

Responding to question on what exactly the bandits-cum-terrorists want, Mamu described their demands as unrealistic and unjustifiable, while calling out the Fulani bandits as more dangerous than the Boko Haram-ISWAP terrorists put together.

He said: “For me, most of the issues they’re bringing are unrealistic and cannot be justified, especially in a country where we virtually have the same problems because if you talk, for example, people stealing in government it does not only affect them, it affects the whole of Nigerians. If you talk about no presence of government in many places this is something that affects all of us. So, I think what government needs to understand in this crisis is to go to the genesis of the crisis and see the way to address the crisis.

“From their initial complaints, is that government has apprehended, arrested and killed most of their people, and what they are saying is that they are different from Boko Haram elements that go out and kill just like that. They said they are only spreading their religious belief and in the process of doing that, most of them are either arrested or being killed.

READ: Bandits terrorising North West are Fulanis, not aliens – Masari

“The mistake we have made as a nation is that we have allowed this Boko Haram/ISWAP elements, part of them, to relocate from the North East now to North West. They are now in the strategic forest of Niger State. Niger State forest is so vast, I think it’s even twice the size of Lagos. So, now they’re assimilating very well with the Fulani bandits and you know the population of the Fulani bandits. They are even more harmful, I can say, than even the normal Boko Haram/ISWAP fighters, because the Fulani bandits are largely illiterates without any understanding of the religion of Islam.

“So, when you have this difficult situation, and in a country whereby the borders are so porous that drugs can come in at will, arms are coming in; in fact, the kind of ammunition that the military hardly use. So, when you allow people to have this access to serious arms and then for them to even have the power to go to the nation’s capital and attack, then what option do you have.

“So, even if, for example, you succeed in killing them, you will hardly succeed in killing all of them and you will believe with me that the level of poverty in the north is so endemic. So, the recruitment into terrorism, into banditry is on the high side. With as little as N20,000, N30,000 you can recruit somebody into terrorism and banditry in the North West now.”