Senate to Buhari: Declare bandits terrorists, crush them

The upper chamber of the National Assembly yesterday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to declare bandits as terrorists and go all out to crush them.

The bandits have for sometime held the country by the jugular with their reign of terror, leading to wanton loss of lives and property, especially in the North-east and North-west of the country.

The Senate in its resolution also asked the president to declare all known leaders of the bandits wanted and locate them and bring them to book.

This followed a motion sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Gobir Abdullahi (Sokoto East), and co-sponsored by eight other senators.

Abdullahi, while moving the motion, raised the alarm that his Senatorial district has now become a safe haven for bandits due to the current crackdown in Zamfara.

He said rampaging bandits last Saturday, killed 21 security operatives in Dama and Gangara villages in addition to yet to be ascertained number of civilians from neighbouring villages.

He added: “We are worried that losing such number of trained security personnel will, apart from depleting the numerical strength of the security personnel we have in the country, dampen the morale of our security agents in confronting insecurity, thereby jeopardising the security architecture of the country.

“We are concerned that while there is crackdown on bandits in Zamfara State, no concrete measures have been taken in Sokoto State, leaving it totally exposed to the activities of the bandits.

“We are further worried that the present military onslaught on the bandits is not well coordinated because it is only being orchestrated in Zamfara instead of all the frontline states ravaged by banditry, i.e. Sokoto, Katsina, Niger and Kaduna. The operation should be holistic instead of restrictive produce effective and desired results.”

At the plenary presided by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, the lawmakers called for a declaration of total war against bandits and also directed relevant Federal Government agencies to give all necessary support to victims of the menace of banditry in Sokoto and other parts of the country.

Lawan expressed concern over the situation and restated the determination of the National Assembly to appropriate more funds to tackle the menace of insecurity.