August 28, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has taken a tougher stand against bandits and Boko Haram than it has shown to secessionist groups like the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Yoruba Nation agitators, Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, has said.
Garba made the remark during an interview with BBC News Pidgin on Saturday.
He was responding to a question on why the Federal Government has not declared bandits and criminal herdsmen, terrorists and outlawed them just as it proscribed IPOB.
He said: “What the Buhari administration has done to the arms-wielding bandits is worse than being declared as terrorists. There is a subsisting order by the President that any arms-wielding, AK-47 bandits should be shot on sight.
“Yes, IPOB has been proscribed by law of the land, there is no shoot-on-sight order.
“The Nigerian Air Force is busy bombing locations, the military is there on the ground, exchanging fire for fire, taking them out in hundreds, that is certainly not treating people (bandits) lightly.
“One thing people who say that ignore is the successes that are being recorded in many areas in the fight against insurgency in the country.”
He claimed there have been “enormous successes” recorded in dealing with bandits and terrorists.
“For instance, Boko Haram are surrendering today in their thousands, this did not just happen,” he noted.
According to him, many of the bandits are being circled and taken out.
“It is a matter of time, they will be substantially reduced and the Nigerian state will be safe all over again,” Shehu assured Nigerians.
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