Banditry: Wake Up To Your Duties, Senate Tells Military

Disturbed by the rising attacks, killings and abductions, the Senate on Wednesday tasked the military to work harder in protecting Nigerians.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan said the rising cases of kidnappings and killings made it imperative for the military to wake up.

He said the military establishment had gotten a lot of support in terms of support and therefore urged them to justify it.

He spoke yesterday during the debate on a motion by Senator Bello Mandiya (APC, Katsina), who called the attention of his colleagues to the rising cases of banditry and kidnapping in Katsina State.

Lawan wondered why full-scale action was yet to be carried out by the military in spite of increased funding for security.

He said: “The expectation of the Senate is that there is supposed to be a remarkable difference in success in terms of the fight against insurgence, banditry and militancy in Nigeria.

“The military is getting better funding from the government and what we expect is to see an improvement in output.

“I know the resources are not enough but recently, for one and a half years, the government has up-scaled the level of funding for our military.

“Secondly, when we declared the bandits as terrorists, my understanding was they are going to be dealt with ruthlessly now. I wonder whether that is the case.

“The military, like some of our colleagues have said, needs to wake up. We want to see a difference because we have made a difference in terms of funding.

“I know funding alone will not be enough, but funding can make a difference and we expect a difference in the outcome,” he said.

‘Deploy fighter jets’

The Senate also on Wednesday urged the government to deploy fighter jets to flush out terrorists from their hideouts; and the security agencies to comb all known hideouts of kidnappers to rescue the 38 persons abducted in Faskari LGA of Katsina State.

Earlier, Senator Mandiya had said that killings and kidnappings by gunmen had become a daily occurrence despite the government’s effort in curbing the menace by setting up Operation Sharan Daji and the Inter-Agency Task Force to tackle cases of banditry.

He said the 38 persons were abducted on Sunday when gunmen attacked Ruwan Godiya in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina.

He expressed worry that the continuous security challenges and related attacks by bandits on towns, villages and communities in Faskari LGA subjected the affected areas to serious survival threats.

Also, Senator Kabir Abdullahi Barkiya (APC, Katsina), faulted the inability of the military to contain the situation despite several calls for it to act.

“What is happening in Katsina shows that we don’t have to only condemn it, we have to do something very serious, because we cannot just sit down after declaring these bandits terrorists and then allow them to continue all these acts,” he said.

Senator Abdul Kwari (APC, Kaduna) said: “I am tempted to ask Mr President, where are the Tucano fighter jets that were recently acquired by the federal government and heavily celebrated by all of us that these bandits have come home to roost?

“Unfortunately, we are now told that Nigeria will need a second layer of approval for it to use these Tucano fighter jets against these bandits that we have all agreed should be termed terrorists.

“The whole nation should rise and get whatever that is needed to be gotten for the use of these fighter jets on these bandits for us to move forward.”

Daily Trust