Buhari orders crackdown on bandits, kidnappers, others

It is time to take decisive action against banditry and kidnapping in the country, the National Security Council decided on Tuesday.

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered a total war on bandits, kidnappers and insurgents.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan also urged Chief of Defence Staff Maj.-Gen. Lucky Irabor and Service Chiefs to take the battle to bandits, who are continuously breaching the security of the country and its people.

Lawan spoke after the Senate cleared the military chiefs, following their appointment by the President.

National Security Adviser Major Gen. Babagana Monguno, who announced the President’s directive after the security meeting, also said the President had declared Zamfara State a no-fly-zone with immediate effect, in response to recent security challenges in the state.

He said the President ordered the security chiefs to recover all areas under the occupation of insurgents, bandits and kidnappers across the country.

According to Wikipedia, a no-fly zone, “also known as a no-flight zone (NFZ), or air exclusion zone (AEZ), is a territory or area established by a military power over which certain aircraft are not permitted to fly…Aircraft that violate a no-fly zone may be shot down.”

The President also approved the imposition and enforcement of a ban on all mining activities in the state, until further notice, as part of efforts to curb rising insecurity.

Monguno said the intelligence and security communities had been mandated to go after all non-state actors, whose activities had been fuelling chaos and place them under surveillance.

According to him: “The President has approved, based on our recommendation, the imposition and enforcement of a ban on all mining activities in Zamfara State with immediate effect, until further notice.

“He has directed the Minister of Defence and the National Security Adviser to deploy massive military and intelligence assets to restore normalcy to that part of the country.

“He has also approved that Zamfara State be declared a no-fly-zone with immediate effect.

“Now all non-state actors that have been causing problems for innocent people, not just in Zamfara State or the Northwest zone, but also the Northeast and other parts of the country in the Southsouth, have been placed under surveillance by the intelligence agencies; we’ve had a lot of reports coming in; collusion with people from all walks of life.”

The President, he added, had ordered the intelligence and other law enforcement outfits in the country to go after persons of interest on the nation’s security watchlist.