‘We Have Asked The President For Deployment Of More Forces’

‘We Have Asked The President For Deployment Of More Forces’, so says the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai.

Providing an update on the political situation in the state shortly after a closed-door meeting with the President in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, he stated that Kaduna State had asked for the intervention of the President in deploying security forces and comprehensive operations.

The plea for reinforcement of forces, he explained, was because the security agencies have been overstretched being involved in various operations across the country.

El-Rufai thus called for urgent presidential intervention to check the activities of bandits and other criminals in Kaduna state

“There is nothing like repentant terrorists. The only repentant bandit is the one that is dead. Our intention in the state is to kill them (terrorists), let them go and see God,” he maintained.

As a result, he said the state government’s policy towards them is to dispatch the terrorists attacking innocent people to their creator to answer for their crimes against humanity.

On whether there is not intelligence to go ahead of the bandits, he said: “Yes, we receive security reports, we know a lot about the bandits and where they are and their activities.

“But you must understand that the intelligence has to be acted upon. And if the security forces are unwilling or unable to reach the locations where these bandits are, then there is nothing we can do as a state government.

“Federal security forces are not under our direct control. We support them, we work with them, the intelligence is being provided, but the truth of the matter is that our military and police are very few in number and they are overstretched.”

‘We Have Asked The President For Deployment Of More Forces’

The governor also observed that care has to be taken in dealing with bandits to avoid collateral damage to innocent civilians.

“Even if you know where the bandits are, you don’t want to go and bomb all of them because they may have civilians in custody.

“You may have collateral damage that you may not want to handle. And without the declaration of bandits as terrorists, it might even be referred to as abuse of their human rights.”

He, however, noted that the recent declaration by the Federal High Court describing the bandits as terrorists had opened the way to fight them without limits.

“So, no one will be dragged to the international court because you killed bandits. No,” he said.

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He said despite the insecurity in Kaduna, the state had continued to attracted investments even though it could have been better.

‘We Have Asked The President For Deployment Of More Forces’