Senator Shehu Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th Senate, has knocked President Muhammadu Buhari for failing to declare bandits terrorists.
In fact, bandits have continued to commit atrocities in Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and other North western states leading to the death of hundreds of citizens including security personnel.
Outraged by the situation, not a few Nigerians have urged the Federal government to declare them as bandits, to justify full scale military onslaught against them.
Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai, for example, has urged Buhari to declare bandits as terrorists, to allow for decisive military action against the marauders.
The Senate had on September 29, 2021 passed a resolution asking President Buhari to declare the bandits as terrorists through a Proscription Order, pursuant to section 2 of the Terrorism Prevention Act, 2011 (As Amended). The Senate asked the president to wage a total war against the criminals, including bombing all their locations, to eliminate them, while also declaring all known leadership of the bandits wanted and track them, wherever they are, for arrest and prosecution.
The House of Representatives had also urged the President to make the same pronouncement, to underline the commitment of the Federal government to stem the wave of criminality and murders perpetuated by bandits all over the country.
In all of that, however, the Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi, argued that the need to follow due process was responsible for the delay in declaring bandits as terrorists.
But Senator Sani remains displeased with the situation in which, according to him, “bandits are killing people regardless of religion and place of worship.”
“They killed Muslim worshipers in their mosques in Niger and Katsina states; they killed Christians in their Churches in Kaduna State.
If the government doesn’t want to declare them terrorists, it should declare them Federal civil servants,” the vocal politician wrote on his verified Twitter handle on Monday.