The governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, believes that no one involved in banditry deserves to live.
Any bandit operating in his state, he says, would “most likely end up dead.”
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The governor made the remarks during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Sunday.
He said: “I think that the bandits and their leaders decided to collectively target Kaduna state because of the position we have taken that we will not negotiate with them, that we will not give them a penny of taxpayers’ money.”
“And whoever comes to Kaduna for the purpose of banditry or kidnapping is most likely going to end up dead.
“We believe that the solution to this problem is to intensify military operations from the air or the ground and wipe all of them out. We do not think any bandit deserves to live.
“And we have made that very clear to the security agencies. I am very pleased that the new chief of air staff has continued the bombardment of bandits in Nasarawa, Kaduna, Niger and Zamfara and the bandits are on the run.”
“We will get rid of these bandits in a matter of weeks,” he said, citing the police and military’s cooperation.
Parents of students abducted from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Afaka staged a protest two weeks ago, demanding their children’s release.
In response to the development, the governor stated that negotiating with the bandits would be detrimental to the state.
“We sympathize with those who have lost loved ones, but the solution is not to prioritize your own personal interests above the public interest,” he said.
