The Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, has said that bandits may be engaged in dialogue as insecurity worsens in Nigeria.
Fayemi who is the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum said this when he led some of his colleagues to Niger State to commiserate with the governor over the kidnap of some students in the state.
Newsflash recalls that no fewer than 27 students of Government Science College Kagara, 3 teachers, two non teaching staff and 9 family members of the staff staying in the quarters were on February 16 kidnapped by bandits in the State.
Prior to the Kagara abduction, some bandits stopped a Niger State Transit Authority (NSTA) bus in the Yakila district of the Rafi Local Government Area on February 15 and abducted at least 21 of the passengers.
Fayemi, while sympathizing with the Niger Governor, said the issue of insecurity was a national concern, adding that the several abductions in the State was not unique to Niger.
According to him: “We all feel your pain. We feel the fears and the anxieties of the good people of Niger State. This is not uncommon. What happens here is not unique to you.
“We also need to explore other avenues side by side with whatever the security institutions are doing if that means engaging in dialogue we may not have a choice.
“We may have to do that, anything to help us to deal with this immediate crisis and then to begin to address on a much more longer time basis, the root causes of this social dislocation responsible for what we are witnessing, all around us.”
