Former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai says the Federal Government is empowering bandits by providing soft landing for those terrorising different parts of the country.
He alleged this while speaking on Channels TV on Sunday night.
According to him, paying them a “monthly allowance,” sending “food to them in the name of non-kinetic, is a kiss-the-bandits policy.
“What I will not do is to pay bandits, give them a monthly allowance, or send food to them in the name of non-kinetic. It’s nonsense; we’re empowering bandits.
“It’s not the government of Kaduna State; it’s a national policy driven by the Office of the National Security Adviser, and Kaduna is part of it. Kiss the bandits; that’s the new policy,” Rufai, a former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
He faulted what he described as a policy that rehabilitates bandits rather than making them answer for their crimes.
This, he said, was responsible for the lingering insecurity problem in the country.
The former two-term governor stated, “My position has always been [that] the only repentant bandit is a dead one. Let’s kill them all. Let’s bomb them until they are reduced to nothing, and then the five per cent that still want to be rehabilitated can be rehabilitated.
“You do not negotiate from the position of weakness. You don’t empower your enemy; you don’t give him money to go and buy sophisticated weapons. That is why the insecurity problem has not gone away and will not go away as long as this policy continues.”
“They can deceive, they can cover up, they can do propaganda, but those that live in Katsina, those that live in Zamfara, those that live in Kaduna, those that live in those states, they know what is happening.”
“Let the governor or anyone come and deny. When the time comes, we will reveal everything,” the former minister added.
The insecurity in the country has worsened, especially in the north, with recent attacks in Katsina, Benue, and Plateau states.
The Federal Government had yet to react to El-Rufai’s claims as at the time of filing this report.
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