Shehu Sani wants bandits to be declared terrorists but Buhari appears not convinced that they deserve the terrorist tag
Reactions have continued to trail the reluctance in declaring bandits as terrorists by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Despite calls by the Senate, governors, including Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, and his Katsina State counterpart, Aminu Masari, the president appears not convinced that the bandits should be called terrorists.
El-Rufai once described the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) as more dangerous than Boko Haram and Bandits combined. He is now advocating for the designation of bandits as terrorists.
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A week ago, the 36 state Houses of Assembly Speakers called on Buhari to declare bandits as terrorists and enemies of the nation.
But the minister of defence, Bashir Magashi, said the need to follow due process was responsible for the delay in declaring the bandits as terrorists. He did not explain what the due process entails.
But a former senator who represented Kaduna Central in the Senate, Shehu Sani, has taken a swipe at the President Muhammadu Buhari administration over its failure to declare bandits as terrorists.
Expressing his displeasure with the delay, Sani on Monday took to his Twitter handle lamenting that the bandits are killing people regardless of religion and place of worship.
He wondered why the government was foot-dragging in declaring the bandits as terrorists when already, their actions have defined them as one.
“They killed Muslim worshipers in their mosques in Niger and Katsina states; they killed Christians in their Churches in Kaduna state; if the Government doesn’t want to declare them terrorists, it should declare them federal civil servants,” he wrote on his verified Twitter handle on Monday.
The bandits continue to wreak havoc on Nigeria and its people, while the government debates whether to declare them terrorists.
Sani’s comment is coming after the attack by bandits on the Baptist Church, Kakau Daji in the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, leaving two dead and some others abducted.