The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Navy, Yusuf Gagdi, has warned that paying ransom encourages bandits to continue their nefarious acts.
He urged the federal government to scrap the rehabilitation and reintegration programme for arrested insurgents and criminals and totally eliminate them.
Naijaonpoint reports that Gagdi made the call during plenary on Wednesday as the lower chamber moved a motion calling on the Federal government to scrap the rehabilitation and reintegration programme for arrested insurgents and criminals.
Speaking during the debate, the lawmaker said, “Payment of ransom is an encouragement for bandits to continue to brutalise Nigerians the way they want.
“When you don’t pay ransom and tomorrow you don’t pay ransom, believe me, it will demoralize the bandits from doing what they are doing.
“In addition to not paying ransom, I don’t see any rationale behind rehabilitating a criminal that is killing people. When arrested, you rehabilitate him, and then he becomes an informant in the midst of our own security.
“Government should not rehabilitate killers. There is no reason whatsoever for kidnappers, bandits, boko haram to be rewarded by being trained and reintegrated into our own security system. The government should stop the rehabilitation of arrested criminals.”
When asked what punishment he prefers to be meted out to insurgents, Gagdi responded ‘’To kill them. Anybody that kills deserves to be killed except if it is a motor accident, our law is explicit but if you kill by coming to a citizen’s house, kidnapping them, taking them to the bush, subjecting them to terrible torture before taking their lives, they do not deserve one second of survival’’
