A former Minister of Communication Adebayo Shittu has urged the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government to promise bandits a promising future by negotiating with them.
Shittu said most of these bandits are able-bodied men whom the Federal Government should retain.
Featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, the former minister said non-kinetic approach in dealing with banditry would bring about a lot of results.
“If I am in position, it is not too late to use non-kinetic measures in negotiating with bandits, giving them a promising future. Let us retain them. Many of them are very intelligent, many of them are able-bodied,” Shittu said.
The ex-minister said the millions of out-of-school children in Northern Nigeria is a “production factory for banditry” in the country.
This is coming when controversial Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, had urged the Federal Government to negotiate with bandits.
Gumi had urged Tinubu against toeing the path of former President Muhammadu Buhari who refused to negotiate with bandits.
