President Bola Tinubu has been advised to emulate the late President Umaru Yar’Adua by granting amnesty to the insurgents, bandits and ethnic militias currently terrorising the country.
According to Eshanakpe Israel a.k.a. Akpodoro, the renewed bombardments and attacks on insurgents will not end the recent insecurity sweeping across major communities in Nigeria.
Akpodoro who holds the honorary title of the Mayor of Urhoboland said it has become imperative for the Federal Government to adopt a carrot-and-stick approach to resolve the security challenge adding that the military might alone would not be enough to tackle it.
He said a new amnesty programme coordinated by state governors should be instituted to get thousands of criminal elements in every state to lay down their arms and become part of the community policing structure in their respective domains.
This, he added, “is because it is the best approach to stem the tide of insecurity currently ravaging the coup try”.
Akpodoro said the repentant armed men would be trained by the government under the proposed new amnesty programme and paid stipends monthly for several years “until they are morally fit to eke out a living”.
He added that the same beneficiaries of the programme would in turn be conscripted into civilian components of the state security apparatus.
He said: “Granting amnesty to repentant bandits, insurgents, hostage takers and other sundry criminals will automatically cut down the crime rate in the country and this can begin with a national summit of critical stakeholders on national security to map the strategies for the success of the proposed amnesty programme.”
Akpodoro said the late Yar’Adua would be remembered for his sincerity and boldness in declaring the Presidential Amnesty for the Niger Delta militants.
He added: “Little did the nation know that the non-kinetic approach could stem the tide of the raging military onslaught that was fast metamorphosing into full-blown war.
“Giving the then insurgents shield was the terrain (creeks), which the alien forces couldn’t navigate, giving the militants more impetus to launch an offensive on the oil and gas facilities then.
During those confrontations, the militants broke into camps feeding their central command information and claiming victory most of the time. Jomo Gbomo was handy at every point in time to announce every progress made by the rag-tag militias.
“It was an era marked by ethnic agitations and responses from the government at the time. Then, the military reaction was that of kinetic approach which in every sense of it wasn’t successful as it ended in no victor no vanquish at the declaration of the amnesty programme.”
