Concern about “heavy casualties of innocent villagers and hostages” from military operations against bandits and kidnappers is the reason the Nigerian government has not deployed forces against bandits, President Muhammadu Buhari, has explained.
He also warned state governors about plans of negotiating with the bandits or giving the amnesty.
“Let them (bandits) not entertain any illusions that they are more powerful than the government. They shouldn’t mistake our restraint for the humanitarian goals of protecting innocent lives as a weakness or a sign of fear or irresolution,” President said in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu late Friday.
“We have the capacity to deploy massive force against the bandits in the villages where they operate, but our limitation is the fear of heavy casualties of innocent villagers and hostages who might be used as human shields by the bandits.”
Buhari’s statement came against the backdrop of rising insecurity in the country, the latest being the kidnap of 317 students from Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe in Zamfara State.
Buhari described the incident as inhuman, and totally unacceptable.
Buhari said that his “primary objective is to get the hostages safe, alive and unharmed”.
“A hostage crisis is a complex situation that requires maximum patience in order to protect the victims from physical harm or even brutal death at the hands of their captors,” he said.
The President warned the bandits that they cannot defeat the government, pointing out that: “No criminal group can be too strong to be defeated by the government. The only thing standing between our security forces and the bandits are the rules of engagement.
On the steps being taken by the state governors, the President warned that rewarding bandits with money and vehicles by some States may “boomerang disastrously.”
He, therefore, asked them “to review their policy of rewarding bandits with money and vehicles, warning that the policy might boomerang disastrously.”
