Why Bandits Can’t Be Declared Terrorists — Defence Minister

The Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd.) has said it is not ideal to declare bandits who have and are still on daily basis killing Nigerians as terrorists yet.

It was gathered that Magashi stated this on Friday, October 29 during a chat with reporters in Maiduguri, Borno State capital.

According to him, there is the need to follow due process before declaring bandits as terrorists.

The defence minister maintained that until these processes are completed before such a declaration can be made by the force.

He said, “We are not declaring them terrorists because there is a procedure for doing that. When the procedure is followed, they will be classified as terrorists. We are waiting for the procedure to be completed.”

It was also learnt that Magashi was in Maiduguri with the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor and Service Chiefs on an assessment visit of the fight against insurgency in the North-East.

The defence minister expressed satisfaction with the successes recorded so far by troops.

He disclosed that his team met with the Theatre Commander and other component commanders to deliberate on the next phase of operations, adding that the meeting also identified problems that required urgent attention to enhance the operations.

Meanwhile, no fewer than twenty personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) were reportedly killed in Zamfara State on Friday.

The security operatives were murdered and their corpses set ablazed in Shinkafi Local Government Area of the State.