The lawmaker said the federal government owed the people of Zamfara State an explanation regarding the presence of military men during the alleged dialogue with the bandits in the state.
Aminu Jaji, a member of the House of Representatives from Zamfara State, has called on the federal government to produce the soldiers who dialogued with bandits in the viral video that surfaced online.
Mr Jaji, who represents Birnin-Magaji/Kaura Federal Constituency on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), made the call on Tuesday while speaking with journalists at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja.
The legislator said the federal government owed the people of Zamfara State an explanation regarding the presence of military men during the dialogue with the bandits in the state.
"How can we be playing with the lives of the people? For the federal government to debunk the rumour that they are not dialoguing with anyone.... It is their own responsibility to find out the military men who participated in the dialogue.
"The people from Zamfara State are owed the duty of knowing why and who participated in that meeting. The people (FG) must tell us who and who participated and under whose instruction the military participated in that dialogue," he said.
Negotiating with bandits
PREMIUM TIMES had exclusively reported how officials of the federal government held a clandestine meeting with terrorist groups in Katsina and Zamfara States.
At least seven leaders of the terror gangs responsible for the abduction and killings of thousands of residents and the displacement of tens of thousands of others in Nigeria's troubled North-west region attended the secret meeting.
Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State had recently accused the federal government of negotiating with terrorists operating in his state without his knowledge.
Mr Lawal's predecessor, Bello Matawalle, who is Nigeria's minister of state for defence, was known for negotiating with terrorists.
In the past couple of weeks, the North-west has witnessed increasing cases of mass abduction, as the terrorists target schools.
Negotiation cannot work
Mr Jaji, who served as the chairman of the House Committee on National Security and Intelligence in the 8th House, said previous attempts to negotiate or dialogue with terrorists did not work.
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The lawmaker stated that the terrorists are only using the ongoing dialogue to integrate themselves into the communities, while also recruiting young people into their groups.
"The previous administration did dialogue with bandits, what are the outcomes? The outcome is zero. Why I say zero is simply because bandits see it as an avenue to be more integrated into the communities, in order to recruit more people," he said.
He stressed that the government has not shown any commitment to ending insurgency across the country.
"For me as a former chairman of national security and intelligence, I have said so many times that I did not see any programme or policy by either the government at the state or national that shows readiness to fight this menace. We urged the federal and states not to be playing on the intelligence of the people," Mr Jaji stated.
The lawmaker, while calling for synergy among all the tiers of government, opposed the use of vigilantes and civilian joint task forces by states.
He also said the use of motions and restrictions by the National Assembly is not going to address the problem of insecurity, stating that the government must commit political will to end the insurgency.
