El-Rufai during an interview on Channels TV on Thursday said their firepower is beyond what the Western Nigeria Security Network, also known as Amotekun can withstand.
Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has said that the local security network does not have the firepower to face bandits ravaging the northern part of the country.
El-Rufai during an interview on Channels TV on Thursday said their firepower is beyond what the Western Nigeria Security Network, also known as Amotekun can withstand.
According to him, therefore calls being made by his Ondo State counterpart, Rotimi Akeredolu, for Amotekun to be granted approval to get sophisticated weapons are useless.
“Those local security network can only provide maybe local intelligence; they do not have the firepower to face these guys. These guys sometimes even rout the military, people are talking simplistically when they say ‘oh, I want to get AK-47 for my Amotekun’.
“You don’t know what you’re dealing with we know, these guys are very well armed, these guys are getting arms that are sophisticated that flew into the Sahel when (Muamar) Gaddafi’s government collapsed. They have sophisticated weapons; sometimes they outgun the military so those vigilance service, those local security networks are not up to scratch,” he said.
He, however, urged the military to conduct an offensive strategy against the bandits, adding that the bandits’ hideouts should be wiped out and that kidnapped innocent victims who die during the raid will be collateral damage as it is allowed in war.
“I have said many times in the last two, three years that in my view, what was needed even then is an offensive against the bandits. We should not adopt a defensive strategy in which when they attack and kidnap people, we start chasing them
“We should map them and we have, we know where they are and just wipe out all of them; just bomb them, kill everyone. Yes, some innocent victims that have been kidnapped that are in custody may die but that’s collateral damage; it’s allowed in war.
“I’m just saying that you have to choose between two evils and for me wiping out the bandits and letting them know that you will die… it’s a matter of days or weeks is a better deterrent than waiting for them to reform. They will never reform, they make so much money; this thing has become an industry that you know sooner or later everyone will get onto it and this is what you have seen happening.
“All the things that we asked for three years ago is now happening now. If that has been done three years ago, we would be in a completely different environment now because three years ago, they were much fewer in number. We know their camp, we know everything about them, we listen to their conversations,” he said.
Speaking on the clamour for the creation of state police, he said Nigeria is the only federation in the world with a centralised policing system.
He added that the part of the Nigerian Constitution that says state governors are the chief security officers of their states is just a cliche because they have no control over the police.
He said, “As a state, we have done all we can to make our state secure, we have spent billions of naira. In fact, we are now adding up the numbers because we want to approach the President and say we need some of the these expenses to be reimbursed to us because defence is completely the responsibility of the federal government.
“Nigeria is the only federation in the world where we have centralised policing, we have argued for years against that, asked for resolution, asked for amendment to the constitution to have federal police and state police, even local government police but that has not happened.
“We have police commissioner but frankly the police commissioner can refuse to carry out any order I give him as governor unless the Inspector-General says it’s okay to do it.
“I’m not saying I have given him order and they have not been complied (with) but I’m saying generically this is how things work. We need to do something about that, I have no control over something as simple as policing.
“The first line of law enforcement police is inadequate, is not under the control of the state government so when people say state governors are chief security officers, it’s just a cliché; three words in the constitution not in reality.
“Secondly, the levels of insecurity have gone beyond simple insecurity to terrorism. These bandits, I have argued for years are terrorists.
“The fact that they don’t have commander and control like Boko Haram does not mean they are not terrorists because when we wanted to classify them as terrorists, people reminded us that they are guns, they don’t have one leader, they don’t have a Shekarau. That’s someone’s definition of a terrorist. My definition is any organisation that challenges the sovereignty of a state is a terrorist organisation.
“Once you have terrorists, you will need the military in our own case with the adequacy of police, even what the police could have done, we bring in the military, and who’s the commander in chief of the armed forces, the president.”
He said Nigeria Governors’ Forum has asked their representatives in the National Assembly to begin the process of getting the constitution amendment done.
He also added that the issue of state police will be looked into after the 2023 budget has been passed.