A former Chairman of the Committee on Prosecution of Bandits-Related Offences, Sani Shinkafi, has called on the National Youth Service Corps to stop posting corps members to some states bedeviled by bandit attacks.

Shinkafi’s recommendation comes over two weeks after armed bandits abducted eight NYSC members along a highway in Zamfara State, later demanding N4 million in ransom for at least one of the victims.

“I’m calling on the leadership of NYSC to stop posting youth corps members to Sokoto, Kebbi, [and] even Zamfara,”he said Monday, during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.

Shinkafi also criticized Governor Dauda Lawal’s refusal to engage in a “peace dialogue” with repentant bandits.

“If this type of situation happens, we used to reach out to these repented bandits, and these repented bandits would work with security agencies to either rescue them (victims) or collect them from their captors without paying any ransom,” he said.

“But this administration — I am telling you, many people were killed, many people were kidnapped. More than 2,000 people were killed and kidnapped. No place in the 14 local governments of Zamfara is safe.”

Shinkafi’s call comes amid growing concerns about the safety of NYSC members who are posted to states prone to bandit attacks. 

In recent years, there have been several cases of NYSC members being abducted or killed by bandits.