Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai has restated that nothing like repentant bandits exist, and that , that the state does not believe in negotiation with bandits.
This was disclosed yesterday to State House correspondents yesterday after meeting with President Buhari and commissioner of internal affairs, Samuel Aruwan, at the Presidential Villa.
He said his administration believes that the only repentant bandit is a dead one. The governor called for massive recruitment into the army and police to stem the tide of the rising insecurity.
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He regretted the killing of 40 persons in the state by bandits, saying that even though there had been such incidents, “this one was a great shock.”
El-Rufai called for more military intervention from the federal government in terms of security forces.
He said the recent declaration by the Federal High Court as terrorists open the way to fight them without limits.
The governor said, “Yes, we receive the security reports, we know a lot about the bandits or where they are in their activities. But you must understand that intelligence has to be acted upon.
“And if the security forces are unwilling or unable to reach the locations where these bandits are then there is nothing we can do as a state government. Federal Security Forces are not under their control.
“We support them, we work with them, and intelligence is being provided. But the truth of the matter is, our military and police are very few.
Bandits operating in 32 states
“They are operating in several states, about 32 to 33 states the last time we checked and how many are there? We must understand the concern that they face and sympathize with them.
But with the, you know, acquisition of more advanced equipment from the countries that I mentioned, Jordan, China, Turkey, and the United States, we expect that the kinetic capabilities of our armed forces will be greatly improved. So, we hope to see the end of this insecurity.
“Yes, there was a problem. Even if you know where the bandits are, you don’t want to go and bomb all of them because they may have civilians in custody. You may have collateral damage that you may not want to handle. Okay?
“And without the declaration of bandits as terrorists, it might even be referred to as abuse of human rights.
“Okay? I know it may sound funny, because in this world today criminals have more human rights than innocent people.
“When you when you kill criminals, people will start shouting that they have human rights. They forget that the people that they are killing also have rights. So this is the world we live in.
“But with the recent declaration by the Federal High Court that these bandits, by whatever description, are terrorists opens the way to fight them without limits. So, no one would be dragged to international criminal court because you’ve bombed bandits.
Kaduna State having largest Military institutions, yet Banditry thrives
“Yes, Kaduna State has the largest concentration of military institutions. But what you don’t realise also is that most of the military institutions are training institutions.
“They are not fighting institutions, only one division Nigeria is a fighting institution in the entire proliferation of military institutions; the Air Force trading commodities for trading NDA is training. In Kachia, the Navy is training, okay. And training institutions do not have fighting forces.
They only have enough security for their facilities. They don’t have fighting forces. They just train. So the fact that there are many military institutions in Kaduna does not give it any bigger advantage in terms of having fighting forces than, say, second division in Ibadan or third armour division in Jos.
You know, we have the first mechanised division which covers several states, but not enough fighting force. It’s a training centre; a centre for training the military rather than concentration of fighting forces.
“Once you say, bandits, of whatever description have been designated terrorists, that’s it. That gives the military the power to do what they do. What we call them is not important. What they are called does not matter. It is the legal status of being declared terrorists that matters.
“The legal status is that they have been declared terrorists, but which terrorists? There are many terrorists in Nigeria. Boko Haram terrorists. Ansaru are terrorists, maybe you’ve never heard about them.
“The ones that we have in Kaduna are bandits that have now been declared terrorists? These are people that rob, kill and kidnap for ransom. What do you want to call them?
But what group of terrorists are they? Are they Boko Haram? Or IPOB? What I’m saying is we call them bandits to differentiate them from the rest but they are terrorists. (leadership)
