El-Rufai: Resources in Hands of Terrorists Can Destabilise Nigeria

* Advocates simultaneous attacks on bandits in six states
*Says he has no political ambition after 2023

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, yesterday, did a review of the security situation in the country and raised the alarm that the financial resources available to the various terror rings in the country were enough to destabilise the nation.

He also disclosed that preliminary investigations had revealed that some security operatives were working as spies for terrorists.

According to him, activities of banditry in the North West zone were more pronounced with more casualties than the havoc that Boko Haram terrorists wreaked on the North East states.

He, however, explained that the inability of the terrorists to access more funds and foods informed why they were surrendering to the authorities while advocating simultaneous attacks on the bandits by the military in the six North West states.

El-Rufai, who spoke at a special press briefing organised by the Presidential Media Team at the State House, Abuja, responded to a question on suspicions that the security arrangements might have been infiltrated by terrorists.

His words: “Yes, we are concerned and it is not impossible to have infiltrators. As I alluded to when I was answering this question, the preliminary report of Boko Haram financing also showed some links to bandits and pointed to some police and military officers in service as having some communication or connection with the bandits.

“So, there’s always that risks. In any system, you have traitors and we’re concerned about that. But till date, we don’t have any firm evidence of that. I think a lot more work needs to be done. As I said, we need to pursue the financing and logistics chain of banditry as well,because the amount of money these bandits are making is enough to destabilise this country.

“It is a lot of money. We only have an idea of what it is, because those that make the payments don’t tell us the truth all the time, but we hear from the legal intercepts of the conversations about how much money they are asking for, how much they have received and so on.

“The numbers are mind-boggling. It’s a major source of national insecurity and it will grow unless it is decisively dealt with. So, yeah, I am concerned,” the governor said.
He noted that the nature of terrorism that reared its head in the Northwest of the country was far more vicious, with more casualties, than the Boko Haram insurgency experience in the Northeast region of the country.

Looking at statistics, he said in the reported cases, while 937 were killed and 1,972 kidnapped by bandits in the state in 2020, a total of 1,192 killed and 3,348 kidnapped in 2021, suggesting a deterioration in the situation.
He explained that apart from the close to 2,000 Kaduna residents killed by the bandits within one year, other neighbouring states like Zamfara and Katsina also suffered casualty running into several thousands.
“I can assure you the numbers in Zamfara and Katsina are two to three times that of Kaduna if they are keeping tabs. The numbers in Sokoto and Niger and Kebbi will be about this. So,we are talking of tens of thousands of people getting killed, getting kidnapped, this is far more serious than Boko Haram.
“The only thing is that these guys don’t take territory. They are in the forests, ungoverned spaces. So, they do not attract the same kind of single-minded attention that Boko Haram does and because Boko Haram’s ideologies is religious or contentiously religious, you know, it elicits more passion.
But really, this is a far more serious problem, because this is largely a situation in which people of about the same ethnicity, about the same religion, you know, killing each other, stealing each other’s property, creating an industry out of criminality is very, very, very serious.”
The Governor further admitted that the location of the bandits were well known to government, adding that concerted efforts were on to decimate the cells of the terrorists.
He said already that the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), had recently given the go-ahead for the procurement of super tucanos jets to fight insurgency and other criminal activities nationwide.

He said, “Yes, we know where these bandits are, we have the maps, you have the times. But somebody has to go in and kill them. I can’t do that. Now, if that somebody doesn’t have enough men, doesn’t have enough firepower, doesn’t have technology, no one is going to commit suicide. This is why, under this administration, the Nigerian governors forum, you know, collaborated with the federal government to take money from the excess crude account to buy the super tucanos and other armaments to help strengthen our defence infrastructure, we have to continue to do that.

“Secondly, how many men and women do we have in the armed forces and the police? And look at how stressed they are. The last time I checked, the Nigerian army is engaged in internal security operations in 32 states. So, how many people can you spare at a time to go into these forests, these are the issues.

“Of course, you cannot double the size of the armed forces and police overnight. It requires selection, training and so on. But you can invest in superior armaments and technology,which can breach their deficits. And that requires a lot of money.”
El-Rufai, however, stressed that the terrorists were currently surrendering in droves due to the cut in their food supply chain and funding.