Insecurity: No such thing as ‘repentant bandits’ – El-Rufai

From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has said that there is no such thing as ‘repentant bandits’, saying the state’s policy is to dispatch the terrorists attacking innocent people.

He made his position known Tuesday while briefing State House Correspondents after he met and President Muhammadu Buhari, to brief him on the recent attack by terrorists in the state that claimed the lives of about 40 persons.

Governor El-Rufai, who was accompanied by the State Commissioner for Internal Security, Samuel Aruwan, to brief the president, said that the whereabouts of the bandits are not hidden but that the military was mindful of the collateral damage it could cause the civilian population.

According to him, if the security forces cannot go to the bandits’ location, the state was helpless.

He said he asked for the intervention of the President for more deployment of security forces and a comprehensive operation.

Governor El-Rufai charged the security agencies to carry out aggressive operations against the terrorists, even as he stressed the need for recruitment to be ramped up in the military and the police as the few numbers cannot successfully carry out operations in the 36 states of the federation.

Asked his position on repentant bandits, he said: ‘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.’

Governor El-Rufai also explained that there are three types of terrorists, the Boko Haram elements, the bandits, and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), adding that the recent declaration of bandits as terrorists by the court has given the military more power to wage war against them.