Buhari’s treatment of AK-47-wielding bandits is far worse than declaring them terrorists –Garba Shehu

Garba Shehu, the presidential spokesman, claims that the Federal Government’s treatment of AK-47-wielding bandits is worse than labeling them terrorists.

On Saturday morning, he spoke with BBC News Pidgin in an interview.

Garba was responding to a question about why his boss, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd. ), hasn’t declared blood-sucking bandits illegal, as the current government has done with the Indigenous People of Biafra and is preparing to do with the Yoruba Nation secessionist group.

“The Buhari administration’s treatment of the armed bandits is worse than declaring them terrorists. The President has issued a directive that any AK-47-wielding bandits should be shot on sight.

“Yes, IPOB has been declared illegal by the law of the land; however, there is no order to shoot on sight,” Shehu said.

“The Nigerian Air Force is busy bombing locations, and the military is on the ground, exchanging fire with them and killing them by the hundreds,” he says.
“One thing people who say that ignore is the successes that are being recorded in many areas in the fight against insurgency in the country,” the presidential aide added.
Garba claimed that dealing with bandits and terrorists has yielded “enormous successes.” “For example, Boko Haram is surrendering in their thousands today; this did not happen overnight,” he said.

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Many of the bandits, he claims, are being circled and apprehended. “It is only a matter of time before they are significantly reduced and the Nigerian state is once again safe,” Shehu assured Nigerians.

The Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), and the then Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr Dayo Apata, approached the Federal High Court in Abuja in September 2017 to seek judicial support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s Executive Order outlawing IPOB and its activities in all parts of Nigeria.

The order prohibiting IPOB was granted by Justice Abdu Kafarati, then Acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court.
The Federal Government is also said to be considering banning the Yoruba Nation movement led by Prof Banji Akintoye and Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho.