Should we be talking of amnesty for terrorists or prosecution?

Martin Ogunleye, former Lagos State MBA chairman

You don’t give amnesty to people who request for it. Why are you giving them amnesty; is it a reward for committing crime? It is a sign that you have failed as a leader and unable to deal with the killings and atrocities that people are committing. It is also a failure of the government.

Amnesty comes from negotiation, people who have decided to come to the table to talk and tell why they are fighting, not you going to beg people to take amnesty and stop killing.

What do the bandits have to negotiate for is a different thing when Boko Haram is asking for amnesty; we know they are fighting against western education, killing their leader, etc.

What are the bandits fighting for?

And if we are not careful somebody would walk to a bank, steal, kill people and be asking for amnesty. Even those in the prison would be asking for amnesty. What we need to do is to ask ourselves why we are like this and what is wrong? We are here because we have done the wrong thing since twenty years ago, the number of police and other security officials is not enough. There has been decay in the last twenty years which needs fixing. Our county is so large for the number of men we have now out there as policemen.

Moshood Savaldor, APC chieftain

It is unfortunate for Nigeria, but I would not say much because I am tired of talking, saying the same thing all the time and nothing is being done. They would leave there one day and let them do what they like.

Ayo Kusamotu, lawyer, political analyst

I think amnesty for terrorists is a crime against humanity. It is an aberration. It is negative and encourages savages and murderers. In that case why don’t we give amnesty to all violent criminals’? What message are we trying to send out there, please?

Adeoye Adelaja, politician, real estate developer

I think it is a crazy idea for the government to think of granting amnesty to terrorists who have been killing and destroying lives and property of innocent citizens.

There is no country in the world that does that, except Nigeria, under President Buhari. Recall that Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai once said that he paid terrorists so that they could stop killing people. But, today has terrorism stopped in Kaduna State? There is no justifiable reason for granting killers of innocent people any amnesty, except there is a conspiracy somewhere.

The government is supposed to clamp down and go hard against terrorists, not paying them. Paying them huge amount of money, as we hear daily, won’t stop them, but will further empower them to have more money to buy arms for more crimes.

It is sad that while Boko Haram are killing and shelling our soldiers, the government will now be granting amnesty, scholarships and financial benefits to the same killers, while families of the slain soldiers are in anguish, poverty, neglect and pains. This is very unfair, the government will only be encouraging more criminality if they go ahead to grant amnesty to these mindless killers.

The government should arrest and prosecute terrorists in line with the law of the land and not pamper them in the guise of amnesty.

Ahmed Oseni, Politician and businessman

The idea of amnesty for bandits is a bad thing. I don’t know why the government has decided to adopt this method as a way out of the problem but I don’t see it succeeding. Check the history of where this has been adopted, especially when they are not keen on stopping their nefarious activities. All this just shows government failure; it appears we are helpless and clueless in dealing with this people. Rather than prosecute them, you are encouraging them. I am of the view that since our government has failed in tackling crime and spate of security they should seek international help. Because the way things are going God forbid, no one and no place is safe from attack.

Nigeria must be careful – John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Bishop Emeritus of Abuja diocese

If a criminal genuinely repents he should be forgiven; this should also apply to those in the correctional homes (prisons). Before we talk about amnesty or forgiveness, we must be saying that those people have really repented and should be ready to go back to their home. Such persons should not be seen to glamorise as if they are saying they are above everybody and above the society. That option should not be considered because the nation is overwhelmed and wants to be intimidated into some kind of amnesty. We must be careful not to make it an easy way for other people to join criminality. Nigeria has become a place where people come in, steal and do all manner of things and get away with it, and that’s probably why we are talking about guarding our borders. Why are our borders so porous that everybody can just come in? When you have organised gangs moving across our borders, we must be very concerned about that; we must overhaul our laws; this is one of the areas where we had the contradiction in our constitution. You say state governors are the chief security officers of their states yet whenever anything happens in their state; they have no control of the police there. There is need to change all that. That is why those calling for restructuring believe things are not working well and that restructuring could make states more autonomous.