October 21, (THEWILL) – Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai has asked the Federal Government to declare bandits threatening the peace of the Northwestern region as “terrorists”.
The Governor made his position known after receiving the third quarter security report from the Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, on Wednesday.
According to El-Rufai, declaring the bandits as terrorists will enable the Nigerian security forces to utterly decimate the gunmen without fear of being sanctioned by the international community.
“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 the 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”, the governor declared.
He also noted that the recruitment of 1,000 youths each across the 774 local government areas of the country would deal a deadly blow to bandits and other criminal elements in the land.
THEWILL had reported a security report presented by Aruwan, revealing that at least 343 people were killed in violent attacks by bandits in various parts of Kaduna State in the last three months.
Aruwan in presenting the report further detailed that bandits kidnapped 2, 553 people in various communities across the state between January and September 2021.
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