Barely six months after the U.S. Congress proposed sanctions against Rabiu Kwankwaso for promoting the massacre of Christians in Nigeria, the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress said he and Peter Obi will hold talks with terrorists if elected into office.

“We will give people confidence. We will work on the people, even the terrorists, and of course, the criminals themselves, to see what can be done really to discourage their action,” the former Kano governor said in an interview on Channels TV Monday.

According to him, previous administrations betrayed informants in rural communities, leading them to withhold information about the current atrocities of the insurgents. He didn’t elaborate on how the government betrayed the whistleblowers.

“You see, all these things that are happening today, if you go to localities, those places where these insecurities are happening, I can tell you people know almost everything. They know their locations, they know the names of all those involved, and so on and so forth.

“But what is happening now is many of the communities are even afraid to go forward and tell the security agencies or agents what is actually happening because many of them have done that in the past, and of course, they did not enjoy it,” Mr Kwankwaso claimed.

The U.S. Congress in February proposed sanctions such as a visa ban and asset freeze against Mr Kwankwaso in a bill titled the ‘Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026’.

Mr Kwankwaso and Miyetti Allah groups as masterminding attacks on Christian faithful in northern Nigeria.

Five U.S. lawmakers—Chris Smith, Riley Moore, Brian Mast, Mario Díaz-Balart, and Bill Huizenga—submitted the legislative bill.