Years after paying killer herdsmen to stop killing Southern Kaduna natives, Governor Nasir El-Rufai has kicked against calls by Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi for the government to use the security budget to address the demands of bandits.

Disagreeing with Mr. Gumi during an interview with BBC Hausa on Monday, Mr. El-Rufai asked why bandits should be compensated despite killing people and destroying homes.

“Why should they be compensated after killing people, destroying their houses. Who offended them?” Mr. El-Rufai said.

“Anybody that thinks a Fulani man that ventured into kidnapping for ransom and he is earning millions of naira would go back to his former life of getting N100,000 after selling a cow in a year must be deceiving himself.”

Mr. El-Rufai’s comments mirrored the position of everyday Nigerians who continue to oppose any deal that would involve making payments to bandits after years of killing and pillaging rural communities across northern Nigeria. But critics said he was being clever by half when he failed to recall the payment he made to herdsmen in 2016 to stop deadly attacks on Southern Kaduna communities.

The Governor in 2016 said the herdsmen demanded to be compensated for the loss of their cattle after they were affected by the post-election violence of 2011.

Mr. Gumi had during a meeting with some suspected bandits in Zamfara last week proposed that the government compensate the bandits, saying they lost all their possession to cattle rustling and extortion.

But Mr. El-Rufai argued that a majority of the Fulani bandits do not believe in religion.

“I told him that the majority of these Fulani bandits don’t believe in religion,” he said. “Therefore, I don’t believe in what he (Gumi) is doing that they should be forgiven and compensated.”

The Governor also said that disunity amongst governors across north-west was hindering the fight against banditry.

 “There is no synergy among the governors in the north-west on how to end the banditry. But Kaduna is collaborating with Niger state on modalities to end the killings by the gunmen,” Mr. El-Rufai said. “States like Zamfara adopted a policy of dialogue with the gunmen, giving them amnesty, which I don’t believe in. With this, we have differences on how to tackle the situation.”

Inspector-General Muhammad Adamu had recently called for wider consultations amongst security agencies, cattle breeders associations, amongst others, to device fresh policies towards securing the beleaguered region from violent exploits of bandits and kidnappers.