Buhari Has Ordered Armed Forces To ‘Extinguish Bandits’ By December – Senate President 

 The Senate President, Dr Ahmed Lawan, on Saturday said President Muhammadu Buhari has given the armed forces December deadline to flush out all bandits from their hideouts.

He made this revelation in his speech at the National Policy Dialogue on Corruption and insecurity organized by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

Lawan said insecurity is a worldwide phenomenon and that Nigeria is no exception. 

“Our Country has been facing the challenge of insecurity, especially insurgency since 2009. Despite the government’s efforts to curtail the menace, it has developed other manifestations that have slowed down the sustained assault of the government on this problem.

“Only recently, the president gave a marching order to the armed forces to extinguish bandits, kidnappers and other criminal agents against the state and her citizens, by December 2022. 

“This administration is committed to achieving this set target. Accordingly, the past few weeks have seen security agencies flushing out terrorists from their hideouts in Kaduna Birnin-gwari axis, Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto. Similar results were recorded in Niger, where, like in Kaduna, the Nigerian Airforce neutralised many terrorists,” he said. 

The Senate President also said insecurity has placed enormous demand on Nigeria’s human and material resources, particularly the emergence of the Boko Haram insurgents in the Northeast and banditry in the Northwest.

He also noted that several other security challenges have since emerged afterwards. 

He mentioned security challenges such as cattle rustling and farmer herder clashes in the Middle Belt, secessionist agitations in the South East and militancy in the South-south.

He added that some of these security challenges have now spilled over to other parts of the country.

“The span of these security challenges have profoundly tasked this administration and indeed the nation, and stretched our security and law enforcement apparatus which remains determined and has withstood these challenges with utmost gallantry. But as I have always said, the challenges of our security infrastructure are the concern of all of us and not just those in government alone.

 “We on our part as legislators have continually supported the effort of the government to tackle insecurity in Nigeria. In the past three years, the National assembly has ensured that appropriation for defence and security is improved upon, year on year,” he said.

He also highlighted the part played by the National Assembly in unveiling those behind Nigeria’s insecurity.  

“The National Assembly, while looking into the possibility of unmasking the perpetrators of insecurity in Nigeria, realized the need for an Anti-Corruption Law to stop illicit financial flows suspected to be funding routes for insecurity in Nigeria. The 8th Assembly passed the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) Bill, which is one of the major anti-corruption laws that saved the country from being expelled from the global body of the Egmont Group.

“In the same vein, the 9th Assembly, working closely with security and law enforcement agencies to further strengthen their capacity to withstand unscrupulous elements involved in criminal and terrorist activities against the state, passed three bills aimed at combating money laundering, terrorist financing and the proceeds of crime,” he said.

According to him, the three bills are in tandem with Buhari administration’s commitment to fight corruption and curb insurgency in the country.