BREAKING: Allowing Citizens To Defend Themselves Against Bandits Will Cause Anarchy

The Governor of Jigawa State, Umar Namadi has dismissed the call for Nigerians to resort to self defence against bandits.

He insisted that the the country “has not reached that level yet,” adding that such a proposal is a call for anarchy.

The governor stated this while responding to former Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.), statement that victims of bandits and terrorist attacks in Benue and Plateau State should rise and defend themselves against marauding gunmen invading their communities.

Danjuma argued that relying on the government for protection is no longer realistic.

Speaking to newsmen, Namadi warned that resorting to self-defence will worsen the crisis, adding that there are alternative conflict resolution means that do not require the people to take to arms in defence.

He maintained that the federal government is doing its best to tackle insecurity, stressing that self-defence will lead to anarchy in the country.

“He (Danjuma) is a very serious security person, but I think citizens being allowed to defend themselves will cause anarchy, but the issue is, the government is doing with best in the security architecture and security arrangement,” Governor Namadi said.

Citing the example of how he addressed the farmer-herder conflict in Jigawa State, Namadi said the crisis would have worsened if he had encouraged the victims to take up arms to protect themselves.

Instead, the governor said he engaged the farmers, herders and traditional rulers in dialogues to resolve the age-long conflict.

“Like I said, what we did in Jigawa, If we allowed the people to defend themselves, that means you’re causing crisis between farmers and herders. But when we came in, we deployed a lot of strategies including dialogue and trying as much as possible to engage traditional rulers and (stakeholders) from both farmers and herders side,” Namadi explained.

According to him, after engaging all stakeholders in a dialogue, a committee was set up to reconcile all parties involved in the crisis.