Kidnappers Should Not Enjoy The Proceeds Of Their Crimes, So, Stop Negotiating With Them - Says Kogi Governor, Yahaya Bello To Governments At All Levels.

Yahaya Bello.

The Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has challenged the Federal, States  and Local governments to stop negotiating with kidnappers to address banditry and other forms of insecurity, as according to him, they should not be allowed to enjoy the proceeds of their crimes.

Bello urged them to borrow a leaf from his administration, which has stopped negotiating with bandits, which is the only way to drastically reduce the menace of kidnapping with the perpetrators stopped from enjoying the proceeds of the crime.

The Governor who spoke during the Senate Press Corps’ Retreat 2020 with the theme, “Democracy and development in a Federation: Roles of the Media, States and Parliaments” in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, said the spate of kidnappings in the state reduced to the barest minimum largely due to his administration’s resolve to tackle the criminals headlong.

“Our highways were littered with virtually weekly occurrences of armed robbery, especially night travelers in luxurious buses, but in four years and nine months later, though we have not been able to eradicate kidnappings totally, the numbers have drastically reduced to the barest minimum as highway robberies and bank robberies are becoming things that are in our history books rather than what we experienced.