Buhari’s Govt ‘Negotiates’ With Bandits But Tags Secessionists As Terrorists – Abaribe

Senate Minority Leader, Enyinaya Abaribe, has again accused the Muhammadu Buhari administration of being biased in its handling of banditry and the herdsmen crisis in the North.

He claimed that the Buhari government treats bandits and killer herdsmen with kid gloves, while it uses iron fist for separatist groups.

Abaribe, who represents Abia South Senatorial District, lamented the country’s state of insecurity during an interview on Channels TV on Tuesday.

Nigeria’s economy has suffered huge setbacks partly due to Covid-19 pandemic and worsening insecurity.

The activities of separatist groups such as the Indigenous People of Biafra in the South East and marauding herdsmen and bandits in the North, have threatened the country’s peace and economy.

But while the Federal Government has designated IPOB as a terrorist organization, it has yet to extend such title to prowling herdsmen and bandits who cause mayhem in the North.

Abaribe, during the interview, said the alleged double-standard of the Buhari administration shows that the government is not prepared to fight insecurity.

He said, “Now this government is very quick to tag the separatists and people who were doing agitation in the South-East as terrorists, because they know the implication of tagging anybody a terrorist and every effort being made to ‘this people who are doing all these things in the North East, in the North West and so forth, why won’t you also designate them, so that the full weight of international opprobrium will land on them and every effort is made to beautify the word and say it is bandit.

“But then these set of people have been able to shoot down a military aircraft and it’s no longer that they are just people who are kidnapping for ransom.”

He said the major problem with Nigeria’s insecurity is the “inability of the government to want to tackle that problem. The single most dangerous is this influx of non-Nigerians with military grade weapons sweeping across our country, going into the countryside and vomiting mayhem. But no effort is made to profile them, no effort is made to make sure that there is a counter surge against them.

He insisted that all that Buhari’s administration has been doing is an attempt to reach agreement with the ‘terrorists’.

“How do you reach an agreement with terrorists who come in from outside the country trying to take over?” He said.

During the interview, the PDP chieftain said no blackmailer gives up once the government continues to pay ransom.

“He will continue what he is doing and that is exactly what has happened…payments of ransom, but the point really is that all over the country, we now saw an upsurge of people carrying military grade weapons following cattle and then attacking communities, doing kidnappings and creating a general state of insecurity and fear,” he added.

In 2017, the senator had called for resignation of President Buhari for his alleged failure to address the security situation in the country.