NAS berates Buhari over banditry

By Alfred. Kayode ,Lagos

The National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) has berated the Federal Government and states in Northern Nigeria for allowing bandits free reign in the region.

According to the organisation it is not enough for the government to rejoice over the release of school children without ensuring that the perpetrators face the consequences of their action.

It has therefore a demanded for a clamp-down on bandits and kidnappers terrorizing Northern Nigeria.

The group in a statement by the NAS Capoon, Mr Abiola Owoaje, titled: ‘Bandits Siege on Nigeria: Enough of the Empty Rhetoric’ stated that the recent kidnap in Kagara in Niger State and Jangebe in Zamfara State “has again put in sharp focus the deteriorating security situation in the country, and the discernible scandalous incapacitation of government and security agencies in tackling the issue of terrorism and banditry in Northern Nigeria.”

Owoaje who noted that Nigerians have had enough of perfunctory statements which remain largely ineffectual called on President Muhammadu Buhari to live up to his responsibility as  the Commander-in- Chief of the Armed Forces and give  “appropriate matching orders to security agencies to arrest the unbridled decline into anomie especially in northern Nigeria.”

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“The bandits through their activities have declared war on Nigeria and its people. Therefore the Nigerian government must respond robustly and decisively to put an end to this cyclical show of shame. Terrorist bandits have invaded Nigeria from within and the government and its security agencies cannot continue this comatose rhetoric of zero effectual action. Kidnapping under the guise of banditry has become a lucrative industry in Nigeria. It is utterly defeatist to negotiate with or appease the criminal elements behind it. Is ransom reward not the purpose of kidnapping in the first place? So how exactly does the government think that delivering ransom and red carpet celebrity to criminals will stop the criminality?

“We call on the Federal Government and the various state governments to end all forms of negotiations directly or by proxy with these reprehensible gangs, and clamp down on them using legitimate and determined compelling force of law and justice. It is incumbent on the Nigerian government to make it clear in unmistakable actionable terms that it would no longer condone kidnapping of school children and other citizens by crushing these networks of terrorists, kidnappers and bandits.

“While the release of the kidnapped school children of Kagara and Jangebe is cheering news, the government must deploy all necessary forces towards apprehending these criminal elements and put them on trial for their crimes against the Nigeria state. This is what is expected of a serious leadership. Appeasement hardly discourages criminality. It only rewards the murderous. In the same vein, rhetoric’s is not a viable solution for defending the territorial and security integrity of a country. Nigerians have had enough of the rhetoric. Nigerians are fed up with this continued disregard for the life and security of Nigerians,” Owoaje said.