When are we going to get it right, working together as a united entity in a sovereign nation,not a state turning the barrel against the government at the centre,
A case in point is the open disclosure by the Commissioner in Katsina State justifying the plan negotiation for the release of 70 bandits to return to their deadly business or end up as informants for their colleagues on their return if released
How long will the nation be building while sub- nationals demolishes?
Getting it right is for the Katsina State government to be call to order . This negotiation syndrome never worked and may not work for Katsina State,where hundreds have being Kidnapped, maimed,killed, communities dislodged and taken over.
One will ask,what is the rationale or justification for the release plan for the 70 terrorists in Katsina ? Is it a tested option for resolving the terrorists activities in the state ? How effective and workable is the move? What legal backing is put in place to justify the release of the 70 terrorists? Is this not tantamount to pampering and encouraging heinous criminality as deadly as terrorism that should rather attract death sentence or life sentence with hard labour and not negotiation of their release.
Security analysts are asking, this commissioner and his principal to apologize to Nigerians and the people of Katsina State on this move that sounds like a movie and not a reality. Negotiation under what pretence and circumstance? if every region or state where terrorists in detention are committed to being released,which community or society will they return to? Will they return to the communities they have destabilized, caused pains,fears and deprivation of peace and safety?
We cannot continue to allow state government take laws into their hands at the detriment of all of us and embarrassment of the government at the centre. This kind of wrong gesture and move prompts government such as that of the United States under President Donald Trump to assume that the country is covering terrorists and encouraging their evil deeds,far from it.
The states concern should pay for their deeds and no one should sympathise with them any longer, but for the innocent, law abiding residents, who cannot relocate from their ancestral homes .
The government at the centre must put a stop to this act of unfairness and compromise from ill advised state governments by their appointees,no state in the country is negotiable to satisfying the blood thirsty terrorists that deserves no mercy in the first place.
Government at the centre must begin to sanction state governments sympathising with terrorists or financing the act by paying ransom.Ransom payment is a way of financing terrorism. It must be stopped and government should punish anyone involved to eradicate the evil act by cutting sources of their survival and empowerment.
James Sunday, Security Analyst and Information Warfare Expert.
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