The Senate on Wednesday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to declare bandits as terrorists.
It also advised the president to wage total war against the bandits, including bombing all their locations to eliminate them.
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The Oxford Dictionary defines terrorism as a calculated use of violence or threat of violence to inculcate fear. It said the act is “Intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological”.
Daily Trust reports that bandits have been terrorising Kaduna, Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, and Kebbi in the North West and Niger in North Central.
They have killed thousands of people, displaced many and crippled social and economic life while different measures taken by governments could not produce the desired results.
The latest intervention was the stoppage of telecommunication services in areas worse hit by banditry with varied opinions on the efficacy of the action.
While security operatives said their decision was yielding positive results, some locals lamented that it only aggravated their problems because the world now rarely hears of their predicaments.
The call by the Senate has validated a recent editorial by this newspaper which called on the federal government to designate bandits as terrorists.
A lecturer at the Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Dr Murtala A. Rufa’i, had said that there are 120 gangs of bandits operating in six northern states.
He said each of these groups, operating in Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kaduna, Kebbi and Niger have in their possession more than 500 AK 47 rifles.
The university don also said over 12,000 persons have lost their lives to banditry in Zamfara State since 2011.
Daily Trust reports that the Boko Haram group, which took arms against Nigeria in 2009 has been designated as a “terrorists’ organisation” by Nigeria and the international community.
The federal government also last year designated the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terror group.
However, experts who spoke to our correspondents yesterday said the federal government must go beyond the designation of bandits as terrorists by deploying all resources to bring their violent activities to an end.
There was no response last night from the presidency on the request by the Senate.
‘Bomb them all’
While calling on Buhari to declare banditry as terrorism, the Senate also urged the president to declare known leaderships of the bandits wanted and track them wherever they are for arrest and prosecution.
The resolutions followed a motion by Senator Ibrahim Abdullahi Gobir (Sokoto East) and eight others.
Gobir noted that Sokoto East Senatorial District had now become a haven for bandits due to the current onslaught against them in Zamfara State.
He recalled the killing of 21 security personnel last Saturday in Dama and Gangara and yet to be ascertained number of civilians from the neighbouring villages by rampaging bandits.
The gruesome murder, the lawmaker said, portrayed the seriousness of the problem, which required concerted and urgent action by the declaration of total war on banditry.
The lawmaker said he was worried that most of the bandits had now relocated to Sabon Birni and Isa Local Government Areas due to the sustained military operations at the Zamfara axis.
Senator Kabiru Gaya (APC, Kano) said the security situation in the country required a holistic approach, warning that the bandits may soon invade the nation’s capital if urgent and decisive action was not taken.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan, in his remarks, called for an upward review of armed forces allocation to N1 trillion to procure needed equipment to secure the country.
“They are giving their lives to secure this country. We need to give them needed resources. We need to improve annual appropriation for them. I see no reason why we should not increase armed forces allocation to N1 trillion,” he said.
Bandits abduct 27 in Sokoto
Many policemen were feared missing as bandits attacked another community in Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State.
Daily Trust gathered that 27 persons including women and children were abducted from the Gatawa community.
The attack reportedly took place around 5 am on Wednesday.
Confirming the attack, the member representing Sabon Birni East Constituency at the State House of Assembly, Sa’idu Ibrahim, said the bandits were now targeting security formations in the area.
“They are now looking for where security operatives are stationed because their morale was boosted by their recent successful attack on a military formation at Dama where many soldiers, policemen and civil defence officers were killed,” he said.
“They raided Gangara village twice on Tuesday, first around 5 am and when they could not find any security operative to kill, they came back around 3 pm shouting ‘where are the soldiers who claimed to be on our trail, where are they!”
“As I am talking to you now, many policemen are still missing. We don’t know whether they were abducted or they fled,” he said.
However, the spokesman for the Sokoto Police Command, ASP Sanusi Abubakar, said he was not officially briefed about the development, promising to call back but did not as of the time of filing this report.
‘Declaring bandits as terrorists long overdue’
Reacting to the Senate’s call for President Buhari to declare bandits as terrorists, a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Adeoye Adedayo, said the federal government should have taken the decision long ago.
According to him, members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) did not operate up to such a level before they were declared terrorists.
“It was long overdue. The President should have done this since. If we consider the number of the people they have kidnapped and killed, IPOB did not operate to this magnitude before they were declared terrorist,” Adeoye said.
Salihu Bakhari, a retired military operative said the federal government should declare a full-scale war against the bandits after declaring them as terrorists.
“They don’t deserve any other name…They are terrorists in the strict sense and they should be treated as such,” he said.
“They declared a war against the Nigerian state. They have killed our troops; they killed innocent people; they raped innocent children and destroyed communities.
“They have committed atrocities worse than Boko Haram and IPOB combined. We have to do everything possible to subdue them because they don’t have any ideological leaning. They are criminals and should be tackled using every force we can muster,” he said.
By Abdullateef Salau, Idowu Isamotu (Abuja), Lami Sadiq, Maryam Ahmadu-Suka (Kaduna) & Abubakar Auwal (Sokoto)
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