A former chairman of PDP in Lagos State and top business mogul,Hon Moshood Adegoke Salvador has warned President Bola Ahmed Tinubu against heeding the counsel of the former governor of Zamfara state, Sani Yerima who advised the President to negotiate with bandits.
The former lawmaker, who represented Mushin I Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives between 1999 to 2003, took a swipe at the former governor describing the advice as reckless and unnecessary.
Salvador who was also a member of the 2014 National Conference made this known during an interactive session with the members of the League of Yoruba Media Practitioners, at his Salvador Towers, Surulere Lagos.
Recall Yerima after his recent visit to the President, had said President Bola Tinubu may dialogue with bandits in a bid to restore lasting peace and security to the country. He also advised the government to sit with the bandits and negotiate with them just like President Umar Musa Yaradua negotiated with the Niger Delta Militants.
Yerima while speaking to the media said, there are people who repent in all religions – Islam, Christian, Judaism, with the fact that God, who created us once you repent after committing offences, after committing sins he forgives you, so there’s no way you can say Nigerians should not be forgiven if they repent.
The former governor also said a lot of bandits have been arrested and killed, but he is not saying government should just continue to just negotiate indefinitely.
He said if the bandits repent, they should be rehabilitated and reintegrated into the society and then measures should be taken to avoid reoccurrence of this menace.
But, if they don’t repent the government has enough power, enough resources, the military, the security have enough capacity to deal with them. He in fact said, dialogue is part of governance.
But Salvador while reacting to Yerima said, it is unfortunate that Yerima brought that proposal to the President, he querried why he was bringing that advice now, and not when one of them was in power.
“Look at the years they have been there, from Tafawa Balewa to Military to Sheu Shagari, and even Muhammadu Buhari, why did they not think proper about it, we should not be listening to them
“They want us to be sharing the resources with bandits, kidnappers and armed robbers, if they don’t know about it, then they should not be asking for that. Killers should be killed if they don’t do that, then others will be afraid”