A former lawmaker who represented Kaduna Central senatorial district in the 8th National Assembly, Senator Shehu Sani, has insisted that terrorists and bandits killing and abducting people in northern Nigeria are not foreigners, but northerners and Muslims who speak the indigenous languages.
He urged leaders in the North to stop exploiting the region’s security crisis for political gain ahead of the 2027 elections.
Sani, who made the call in a post he shared on his Facebook page, alleged the leaders in the region are not only manipulating the people, they are also using insecurity in the region as a tool for political manoeuvring, instead of addressing the root causes of the issue.
Sani also criticized both political and traditional leaders in the North of hypocrisy, ineffective leadership, and the escalating insecurity that has afflicted northern Nigeria for over a decade. He, thus, called for an urgent meeting among Northern leaders to address the underlying factors contributing to insecurity.
While urging Northern leaders to confront the situation headlong without further excuses, he stated:
“All these terrorists killing people in the North of Nigeria are Northerners and Muslims. The bandits attacking people in northern regions are Fulanis from the North Western part of Nigeria. So, it is for us to solve the problem; it is not for anyone else to solve.
“The terrorists in the North-East are northerners. The bandits in the North-West speak Hausa, Fulfulde and Kanuri not Mandarin or French.
“For 15 years, northern Nigeria has been a theatre of bloodshed. The terrorists and bandits across the North-East and North-West do not isolate their targets. The attack schools, churches, mosques, villages; nothing has been spared since 2012.
“Some are celebrating attacks because it weakens the government. Combatting bandits and terrorists, the recruitment of Military and Police personnel should place emphasise on regions with the highest levels of insecurity.
“They should be recruited, trained, equipped and sent to their states and regions to fight the criminals. They know their terrain better than anyone,” he added