Penultimate Wednesday, September 29, the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria called on President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, to, as a matter of urgency, declare bandits as terrorists and wage total war against them.
The upper legislative chamber urged the President to give orders to the military to eliminate them by bombing their hideouts.
It further asked President Buhari to immediately declare all known leadership of the bandits wanted, and track them wherever they are for arrest and prosecution.
According to reports, these formed part of resolutions reached on that day after the chamber considered a motion on banditry in Sokoto during plenary.
Sponsor of the motion, Ibrahim Gobir of the All Progressives Congress, Sokoto East, while presenting the motion, lamented that Sokoto East Senatorial District had now become a safe haven for bandits, following a crackdown on them by the military in Zamfara.
He was quoted as saying that on Saturday, 25th September, 21 security personnel were killed in Dama and Gangara villages by rampaging bandits.
The lawmaker disclosed that out of those killed, 15 of them were soldiers, three mobile policemen and three members of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, in addition to a yet-to-be-ascertained number of civilians from the neighbouring villages.
“This has gone to portray the seriousness of the problem which requires concerted and urgent actions by the declaration of total war on banditry,” he said.
“Losing such numbers of trained security personnel will further deplete the numerical strength of the security personnel we have in the country, therefore jeopardising the security architecture of the country,” Gobir added.
Interestingly, barely 24 hours after the Senate asked President Buhari to declare bandits as terrorists, the House of Representatives, on Thursday, September 30, also urged the President to do same.
“There is no justification whatsoever for the Federal Government to wait till this moment when all Nigerians, as represented by their chosen representatives, have to call on President Buhari to call the bandits by their proper name”
On that day, the Chairman, House Committee on Defence, Babajimi Benson, at plenary, moved a motion of urgent public importance, asking the Federal Government to urgently declare bandits as terrorists.
The motion was titled, “Declaration of bandits and their sponsors as terrorists.” Benson argued that declaring bandits and their sponsors as terrorists would aide their arrest and prosecution in no small way.
He said, “The Senate on Wednesday, September 29, 2021, adopted a motion asking President Muhammadu Buhari to declare bandits ravaging the northern part of the country terrorists and wage a total war on them.
‘’They also asked that the President declare all known leaders of bandits wanted and arrest them wherever they were found for speedy prosecution.
“Such declaration, through a Proscription Order, can be done pursuant to section 2 of the Terrorism Prevention Act, 2011 (As Amended).
“I will like to echo the same sentiment and ask colleagues to join the Senate in urging Mr. President to declare bandits and their sponsors as terrorists. This will underline the determination of government to combat the wave of criminality and murders conducted by bandits all over the country.”
He further argued that such declaration, when given the force of law, would renew the vigour and resolve of Nigeria’s gallant security personnel in dealing with the menace of banditry as the mode of operations and rules of engagement would be scaled up accordingly.
“Such an order will officially bring the activities of bandits and their sponsors within the purview of the Terrorism Prevention Act and any persons associated with such groups can then be legally prosecuted and sentenced to penalties specified in the Act,” he added.
That was not all. Last week, human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, added his voice to the call to declare bandits as terrorists. He actually urged the media in particular to apply the appropriate tag to these felons by tagging them terrorist in their reportage. He also appealed to other Nigerians to stop branding terrorists as mere bandits.
While reacting to the Federal Government’s seeming silence on the calls to declare bandits as terrorists, Falana referred to the Chibok situation, as well as IPOB, among others, who the government was “quick to proscribe” as terrorists and yet has continued to treat banditry ‘lightly’.
He said, “It is public knowledge that the dangerous criminal elements who kidnapped the Chibok and Dapchi secondary school girls in the North East zone in 2014 and 2017 respectively were not referred to as bandits.
“They were called terrorists by the Federal Government and the media. The description was correct, as the abductions carried out by the criminal elements were acts of terrorism. But for reasons best known to the Federal Government, the criminal elements who are currently involved in the brutal killing of innocent people and abduction of thousands of people, including primary school pupils in the North West zone, are called bandits and not terrorists.
“The federal lawmakers also asked President Buhari to declare all the known leaders of the bandits wanted and track them wherever they are for arrest and prosecution. So far, the Federal Government has ignored the resolutions.”
“However, as the Federal Government is not prepared to declare them as terrorists we call on the media and the Nigerian people to stop referring to terrorists as bandits,” Falana stated.
For the records, the so-called bandits have made life miserable and unbearable for Nigerians, especially in the North West region of the country. And so, there is no justification whatsoever for the Federal Government to wait till this moment when all Nigerians, as represented by their chosen representatives, have to call on President Buhari to call the bandits by their proper name.
The message it sends across is dangerous. Many Nigerians have now come to the conclusion that bandits are being treated with kid gloves and enjoying preferential treatment from very high quarters. Allowing such perception to continue to exist and fester does the nation more harm. This is the time to call a spade a spade.
It would be difficult, really, to fault the argument of those who want bandits tagged terrorists. The reason is simple. There is nothing all known terrorist groups have done that the bandits have not done. The argument that they have no centrally recognised body is simply begging the question.
If anybody engages in a criminal act by forcefully abducting another and demanding ransom; if anybody can shoot down an Air Force jet fighter; if anybody can force villagers to marry off their daughters at age 12 to unknown individuals; if anyone can levy communities and forcefully collect taxes from the communities, such people correctly fit the terrorists tag and nothing less.
We therefore urge the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, give these marauding terrorists their appropriate name.
