Community leaders and council chairmen from Charanchi and Batagarawa local government areas in Katsina State on Saturday signed a “peace agreement” with a group of armed men otherwise called bandits.
At the meeting, one of the armed men addressed residents directly, saying the insurgency and kidnappings were shaped by wider political decisions rather than only by local actors.
“It was the government that wanted us to engage in banditry, but now it has called us and told us to stop. Therefore, by God’s grace, we have stopped from today,” said one of the bandits during the peace meeting between Batagarawa and Charanchi held on Saturday.
If the government wants all this insecurity to end, they have the power to end it — but they don’t want it to end. For the past two months, we have been trying to initiate a peace talk, but we were unable to because they didn’t know where we were hiding.
But when they finally decided to meet us, they were able to find and talk to us today. Peaceful coexistence and the end of insecurity depend on the Nigerian leaders. If they want us to keep striking and attacking, we will. But if they want peace, we will also make it happen.
We don’t have the power or wisdom to bring peace to the country except through the Nigerian government, because everything is under their control. Despite people saying that we are attacking, it is the government that made us do it.
“If they don’t want us to attack or kidnap people, they can stop it. However, today, they were the ones who called us, and by God’s grace, we have stopped from today. You oppressed citizens — if you want to cry, don’t cry with us, the ‘terrorists,’ but cry with your government, for they are the ones who made us do what we have been doing,” the terrorist said..
