Due Process Needed To Declare Bandits As Terrorists – Defence Minister

The Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Magashi (rtd), has said that the Federal Government cannot hurriedly declare bandits as terrorists.

According to Magashi, some processes need to be followed before the bandits terrorising the northern region of the country could be designated as terrorists.

The minister stated this while speaking to journalists in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Friday.

“We are not declaring them terrorists because there is a procedure for doing that.

“When the procedure is followed, they will be classified as terrorists. We are waiting for the procedure to be completed,” Magashi said.

The defence minister visited Borno in company with the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor and Service Chiefs who were on an assessment tour of the fight against insurgency in the North East.

Earlier in the month, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, suggested that the Federal Government was not interested in making a distinction between bandits and terrorists.

“I think we have been dancing around nomenclature, a criminal is a criminal whether it is a bandit or terrorist and the same measure is being meted out to them.

“That is why we find it ridiculous, the accusation that the federal government is softer on bandits than the separatists and other criminals. This is a fallacy, fake news and misinformation all into one, and this is the kind of divisive rhetoric being promoted by some naysayers,’’ Mohammed had said.

Last week, Speakers of the 36 state assemblies had called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare bandits as terrorists and enemies of the nation.

They reached the resolution at a conference of state assembly speakers held in Katsina State.

“We call on President Buhari to declare bandits as terrorists and enemies of the state. The conference has observed all the activities carried out by the bandits as containing the same mode of operations used by terrorists,” said chairman of the conference and Bauchi State Speaker, Abubakar Suleiman.