Declare Bandits Terrorists – El-Rufai Tells FG

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria has asked the Federal Government of Nigeria to declare bandits as terrorists.

Gatekeepers News reports that Governor El-Rufai said declaring the bandits threatening the peace of the Northwestern region as “terrorists” will enable the Nigerian security forces to utterly decimate them without fear of being sanctioned by the international community.

El-Rufai gave this call after receiving the third quarter security report from the Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, Kaduna on Wednesday.

He said, “We in the Kaduna State government had always urged for the declaration of bandits as insurgents and terrorists. We have written letters to the federal government since 2017 asking for this declaration because it is this declaration that will allow the Nigerian military to attack and kill these bandits without any major consequences in international law.

“So, we support the resolution by the National Assembly and we are going to follow up with a letter of support for the federal government to declare these bandits and insurgents as terrorists, so that, there will be fair game for our military.”

El-Rufai added that the recruitment of 1,000 youths from each 774 local government areas across the country would deal a deadly blow to bandits and other criminal elements in the land.

In an earlier report presented by the Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, it was revealed that at least 888 people were killed in violent attacks by bandits in various parts of Kaduna State in the last nine months.

The Commissioner in his detailed report said a total number of 343 people were killed by bandits between July and September this year alone, while 2,553 people were kidnapped by bandits in various communities across the state from January to September 2021.

Although most of the killings were attributed to kidnappings and the activities of bandits, the commissioner however disclosed that some deaths within the period under review were due to communal clashes, violent attacks, and reprisals that cut across all ethnic and religious groups in the state.

Governor El-Rufai while reacting to this, sympathised with the victims of the attacks and ordered for the immediate compensation of surviving victims and relatives of the deceased.

The Governor promised to keep supporting the security forces as they carry on their push to dislodge the criminals from their hideouts and rid all those threatening the peace of the region.