It is no news that Nigeria negotiates with terrorists. In most cases, hundreds of millions of Naira are parted to terrorists in form of ransom. But asking for national honors and recognition, a demand recently made by Dr. Abdulmalik Attah, for terrorist-negotiators is repulsive for most Nigerians.
Many believe that the way and manner President Muhammadu Buhari’s has been handling the menace of insecurity in the country has exacerbated it and thus embolden the terrorists more than it has abated it. Just most recently, Dr. Abdulmalik Attah, one of the Presidential Committee members who negotiated and got the abducted Kaduna-trained passengers released has validated the claim that negotiation with terrorists is not new to President Muhammadu Buhari-led Government. He went as far as considering a national honor and recognition for his committee.
In fact, Dr. Attah praised his members so well and gave account of how the security apparatus of the country aided their mission of getting the abducted passengers released. He did not stop there, he asked for a national honor for his committee for interfacing, on behalf of the Federal Government, with the terrorists and getting the passengers released. .
Dr AbdulMalik Attah went as far as accusing his co-negotiated Malam Tukur Mamu of frustrating previous efforts of the government at releasing the abducted passengers. He made the clain during an interview with
Channels TV. Atta’s father was among the abducted passengers of the ill-fated train abducted midway by terrorists, popularly called bandits by the Government.
Atta said Mamu did everything within his reach to thwart the federal government’s efforts at rescuing the hostages for his own interest. Daily Trust had reported that Attah said the families of the abducted passengers have parted with over $200,000 previously to the terrorists without having the passengers released.
“Because of Mamu’s introduction of money into the rescue process, the victims’ families had parted with over $200,000 prior to the chief of defence staff’s intervention.
“The Presidential Committee made life-threatening sacrifices, as we had to go into the forest to meet with the terrorists and even slept in the bush.
“It has been six months and one week, but we thank God everything has come to an end now, thanks to the support from the federal government through the office of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). We were able to go into the bush and bring back the remaining of our family members.
“We achieved this not through somebody who betrayed the committee and the government, I am talking about the person of Tukur Mamu who did everything within his reach to thwart the efforts of the government for his own interest. As we all know, he is in the hands of the government now. But we thank God, all our family members are back now.
“The bandits never asked for money ab-initio, Tukur Mamu introduced money into the whole thing and derailed the process and kept everybody for the past six months.
“We parted away with about 200,000 US Dollars. Thank God the CDS took it upon himself and put in place a committee that never asked a kobo. Every sacrifice being done so far has been personal towards ensuring the release of the victims.
“In the committee, I can assure you that I worked with credible people of the highest order. If I have my way, all of them would be given national honors. We risked our lives, went to the bush, we slept there in the bush.
“We heard the complaints of those people (the terrorists), even though we knew what they have done is wrong, but we had to engage them.
“Going forward, our security agencies must synergize their operations and the government should open more room for further engagements.”