From: Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
The Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru, has said that the federal government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not negotiate with bandits.
He emphasized that the ongoing military onslaught against banditry, kidnapping, and rustling will be sustained in the Northwest and other parts of the country until all bandits are chased away.
“We are not going to jump into negotiation. We will look at the merits and demerits of it. But as it is now, we are not going to negotiate with them (bandits).”
Speaking in an interview with the Nigerian Media in Kaduna yesterday, he mentioned that he was in Kaduna to visit military formations under the directives of the Commander-in-Chief, President Bola Tinubu.
“You will agree with me that one year is not enough to end the insurgency but with the support of all stakeholders and prayers, we are on course to secure our country because we are determined to flush the insurgents out of their hideouts across the region and end the insurgency.”
“We have been able to neutralize some of the bandits’ kingpins in their various locations. We are on target to do more. Thus, my visit is to engage stakeholders and to review the current military onslaught to see how we can improve,” he disclosed.
He also said, “One of the steps we took was the formation of Operation Fansan Yamma, which will coordinate all the military onslaughts happening in the Northwest.”
“Now, the 8 Division in Sokoto, the One Division, as well as Air Force formations and other operations will be under one command. This way, if they’re moving in the forest, we will be able to monitor them.”
Regarding the recent remarks by the National Security Adviser that some soldiers were found to be supplying weapons to the bandits, he said while this is very unfortunate, the military has always monitored the movement of its arms.
He explained that sometimes arms reach these hoodlums if they attack military bases or lay ambushes, stating, “It is a situation where if we block this problem, they will open another one.”
“We are going to review the status of every arm and who is handling it. In the military, if one bullet is missing, one has to account for it, so certainly we are going to investigate and get to the bottom of it.”
Badaru is optimistic that the ongoing strike by the bandits in some parts of the region will not deter them from the recent military operations aimed at securing the country and making it safe.
