The Governor Kaduna State Nasir El-Rufai on Thursday, stated that the fear of getting arrested for war crimes have prevented the Nigerian Military from bombing bandits in the past.
The governor who spoke during the weekly press briefing organized by the presidential media team observed that before the court proscribed bandits as terrorists, there was no legal backing for the military to bomb them.
El-Rufai said now that the order has been issued and gazetted, the military can now go after the bandits and treat them as terrorists without any fear.
He pointed out that it was difficult to proscribe the bandits as terrorists because they had no identified leader or structure like the Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists.
As far back as 2017, we saw the danger of this (referring to banditry). We made a presentation to the federal government to declare these bandits as terrorists,” he said.
“But based on advice, it was said that since they do not have single command and control the way Boko Haram, ISWAP and terrorists are, it is difficult to declare them insurgents.
“But I’m happy that by the ruling of the federal high court, they have now been declared as terrorists so there is a fair game.
“The military was afraid of bombing them and then facing ICC. You know the media and civil societies always rise to protect those at the receiving end of something, not looking at the victims of those people sometimes.
“No general wants to retire and then you go to the US and they arrest you and say you have bombed civilians. So, there is reluctance on the part of the military. With this declaration of the federal high court, I think we can go after them,” El-Rufai added.
