The House of Representatives’ Committee on Army has again urged the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to declare bandits terrorists to enable the Nigerian Armed Forces to fully clamp down on them, IgbereTV reports.
The Chairman of the committee, Abdulrazak Namdas, made the call when the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Farouk Yahaya, appeared before the committee to defend the budget proposed for 2022 in Abuja on Friday.
It was the second time the committee was urging Buhari to take the action within 24 hours.
The House had on September 30, 2021, a day after the Senate passed the resolution, asked Buhari to designate bandits, who have dominated the North-West and parts of the North-Central geopolitical zones, and their sponsors as terrorists.
The lawmakers made the demand when the Training and Doctrine Command of the Nigerian Army in Minna, Niger State, came for budget defence earlier on Thursday.
In his welcome address on Friday, Namdas said, “My committee members have said I should repeat what I said yesterday before TRADOC yesterday, that they are a training institution and we charge them to train more on terrorism and banditry because these are actually challenging issues.
“That was the main reason why we in the National Assembly – both the House and the Senate – have passed a resolution urging the President to also designate bandits as terrorists so that it can enable the Army to tackle the challenge headlong. We know at the moment that there are technical challenges with using our equipment because of certain conditions.
“At least, we urge the President to please help sign this because right now, the activities of bandits are getting even more sophisticated – more than even what is happening in the North-East.”
