The organisation made this known in Abuja over the weekend during the address of its newly inaugurated President, Chief Joseph Saater Undu.
Tiv Youths, through their apex socio-cultural organisation, Tiv Youth Organisation (TYO), Abuja chapter, have criticised recent proposals from certain quarters that amnesty should be granted to bandits, terrorists, and armed herdsmen.
The organisation made this known in Abuja over the weekend during the address of its newly inaugurated President, Chief Joseph Saater Undu.
A former governor of Zamfara State, Ahmad Yerima, had urged President Bola Tinubu to consider having a dialogue with bandits to end insecurity in the North-West region of the country.
Yerima called for negotiation with “repentant” bandits, saying military force would come with “collateral damage” in an interview with BBC Hausa.
Similarly, the senator representing Plateau Central Senatorial District, Diket Satso Plang, supported Yerima in calling for amnesty for bandits terrorising parts of the northern region.
While condemning the calls made by the former governor and the senator, Undu urged security agencies to "clamp down on all identified security threats and neutralise them to give the citizens a new lease of life”.
He said, "TYO strongly condemns the call for amnesty for bandits, kidnappers and terrorists.
"I call on the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu through the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to direct the security chiefs to clamp down on all identified security threats and neutralize them to give the citizens a new lease of life. This is achievable if the government is sincere and willing to end insecurity in the country.
"All arrested suspects should be charged to court to answer for their crimes against innocent Nigerians. As a matter of fact, we call on the president and the National Assembly to establish Special Courts for the speedy trials of suspects arrested for terrorism, banditry and kidnapping.”
On the issue of rural-urban migration, Undu noted that the widespread insecurity ravaging the country, especially in North Central and other regions being carried out by marauding armed herdsmen, bandits and kidnappers is the major factor behind Nigeria’s food crisis.
He said, "It is also a security threat to our urban centers. The rural-urban migration we witness daily in our cities today is alarming. The mass exodus of thousands of unskilled and unemployable young men who are mostly farmers to the urban centers because of rampaging bandits, terrorists and Herdsmen in their communities is the cause of rising security incidences in our cities and towns.
"We can stop this by stopping attacks on their communities. We can stop this by making their communities and farms safe. We can also stop this by making subsistence farming attractive and profitable."
"The President does not need the Nigerian Military and other non-state actors in completely eradicating all forms of security threats in our dear country. He only needs the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the Department of State Services (DSS) to root out all criminals, terrorists and bandits across Nigeria in one month, if he has the political will,” he said.
TYO was incorporated in 1988 with the mandate to coordinate the activities, way of life and general well-being of Tiv youths around the world with its headquarters in Gboko, Benue State.