A former All Progressives Congress presidential aspirant Adamu Garba says the renowned Islamic scholar Sheikh Abubakar Gumi found bandits and held peace talks with them in Zamfara because he employed a non-combative approach.
Speaking during a PUNCH Live programme over the weekend, Mr Garba said it is high time the authorities adopted the conversational approach to end banditry.
“The security agents say they don’t know where they (bandits) are and they cannot find them but they are not altogether honest,” he said.
“What is the total size of Nigeria? So, you can actually locate them but the problem is that can you confront them and neutralise them using fire power? That is the question. A security man will go there with his own AK-47 and some tanks and bombs, that is what he wants to use. He has to plan and to the best of his knowledge, as long as he is not ready to confront them, he didn’t see them.
“But Sheikh Gumi said, ‘I come in peace, you can search me, I just want to talk, know what is your problem so that I can tell the public you plights, that was why they said, ‘Okay, we are lowering our guards, we will allow you to come, we will tell you our frustration and then we will let you go in peace’.
“If the government had cultivated that kind of approach, it would have been easier.”
