President Muhammadu Buhari has sent out a strong warning to
bandits and their sponsors, as he condemned the latest abduction of Jangebe
schoolgirls, as inhumane and totally unacceptable,
Simultaneously, he warned state governors to stop rewarding
bandits or terrorists with ransom payment.
He urged the states “to review their policy of rewarding
bandits with money and vehicles, warning that the policy might boomerang
disastrously.”
He also advised states and local governments to be more
proactive by improving security around schools and their surroundings.
Reacting to the kidnapping of 317 schoolgirls in Government
Girls Secondary School, Jangebe in Zamfara State, Buhari said that his
administration will not succumb to blackmail by bandits who target innocent
school students in the expectations of huge ransom payments.”
“No criminal group can be too strong to be defeated by the
government,” he said.
“The only thing standing between our security forces and the
bandits are the rules of engagement.”
“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,” he said.
The President said: “our primary objective is to get the
hostages safe, alive and unharmed.”
President Buhari noted that “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 warned the bandits: “Let them 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.”
The President appealed to state governments “to review their
policy of rewarding bandits with money and vehicles, warning that the policy
might boomerang disastrously.”
He also advised states and local governments to be more
proactive by improving security around schools and their surroundings.
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