The Executive Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has revealed how the nation’s security forces can put an end to insurgency and banditry in the country.
The governor said the security forces need to take the war to the terrorists so as to recover the un-governed forests that had been taken over by the criminal elements.
Governor El-Rufai stated these at the Federal Government Town Hall Meeting on National Security at the Kaduna State University, in the state capital on Thursday.
El-Rufai said the reactional approach of the security operatives to cases of banditry was unacceptable.
He added that taking the war to the bandits was the only way out of the security challenges across the country.
“We are in a war with these terrorists who are challenging the sovereignty and monopoly of the instruments of coercion of the Nigerian state and its territory,” he said.
According to him, taking the battle to the terrorists “will not only cripple the outlaws, but will also reassure ordinary citizens, bolster the morale of the security agencies and provide an alternative focus for the energies that are being dissipated on fractious endeavours.
He stated further that “These bandits have lost their rights to life under our Constitution and must be wiped out in their entirety. There is no other way to approach the current insurgency situation today as far as governmental action is concerned.”
Lamenting on the national level security response to challenges of terrorists, El-Rufai said, “none of the military services nor other security agencies has been suitably expanded in numbers and equipment for over a decade since the insurgency in the North-East pushed things to a new low.
“This country does not have enough soldiers, uniformed police and secret police to project state power across its vast swathes, particularly the forests.
“The limited number of boots on the ground are not well equipped and are significantly lacking in the technology that can make their limited numbers matter a lot less.”