Ex-PDP chairman advocates dialogue with bombers

A former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, has advocated dialogue with insurgents to end the spate of bombings in the country.

Tukur, who spoke with journalists in Abuja on Thursday, said he was bitter and sad over the Wednesday bombing in the FCT, which led to the death of 21 people.

He said that insurgents must be engaged in dialogue to save the lives of people, adding that all the wars fought in the past usually ended up in dialogue.

“Dialogue is the answer. Let us make it faster to save the lives of people. We need to strengthen the nation’s defence and I also urge Nigerians to always expose the tendency of people that want to commit atrocity,” Tukur said.

He appealed to the Federal Government to reach out to the neighbouring countries in order to address the problem of insurgency.

He said, “We are part of this nation, patriotism is very important, we see what is going on and people are being killed mercilessly. We should strengthen our defence. The securities are doing their own and we should do our own because security is the responsibility of everybody.

“We should equip our army, police and all the security agencies. We should dialogue with these people (insurgents). We should reach out to our neighbouring countries. Let us strengthen our defence.

“We must do all we can to ensure that our nation is safe. Wars that were fought in the past ended up in dialogue. All the insurgencies one way or the other must end up in dialogue.”

Tukur, who prayed that God should touch the minds of the insurgents so as to stop their nefarious activities, noted that journalists were facing challenges in this period of insecurity.

He called for a one-minute silence in honour of the late Managing Editor, Northern operation, New Telegraph newspaper, Mr. Suleiman Bisala, who was killed in Abuja bomb blast on Wednesday.

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