Globally, when a group of misguided people arm themselves and brazenly attack a constitutionally established institution or country, such should be regarded as terrorists. No more no less. Many of such armed hooligans have over the years exhibited their traits, inflicting terror and mayhem on innocent citizens and indirectly attacking constituted government.

Security experts describe a terrorist as, “A radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organises with other terrorists in small cells; often uses religion as a cover for terrorist activities.”

This group finds joy in intimidating and coercing innocent citizens and forcefully inculcating their ideological beliefs in their victims. Most times, they are on rampage, destroying property, just to actualise their beliefs and leaving bloodshed in their trail. There are different types of terrorist groups, including: State-sponsored terrorism, dissent terrorism, and terrorists and the Left and Right, criminal terrorism (herdsmen and bandits belong to this group), while Boko Haram belongs to the religious terrorist category.

It is unfortunate that Nigeria has become a bastion for terrorists. All the terrorists groups operating in the country have religion as their underlining interest, which helps to boost their manpower and resources. The question on many lips is, why are these armed radical groups operating more from the northern part of the country, whose religion is basically Islam, since we have been informed that Islam is a peaceful religion? How come this groups are claiming to be offshoots of the same peaceful religion? It is said that, out of every 12 disciples, there is a Juda. In other words, the 1 per cent of the 12 are the corrupted ones. What this means is that the Boko Haram sect and the bandits constitute the corrupted 1 per cent of worshippers of Islam that have taken arms against various governments and innocent citizens. For this corrupted 1 per cent, their teachings are corrupted and they want to force their wrong ideologies on the larger society.

Boko Haram, bandits, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Lashkar-e-jabbar in India, the Continuity Ireland Republican Army (CIRA) in Northern Ireland, al-Nusra in Syria, Mujahedin-e-Khalq in Iran, ISIL in Iraq and Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) in Libya. It is pathetic that this misguided 1 per cent Muslims have inflicted pain on most countries of the world. In Nigeria, they have unleashed unbearable pain on innocent citizens; even those that parade and disguise themselves as herdsmen have left no one in doubt of their real nature, which is criminal terrorism, the same with the invading bandits who have succeeded in terrorizing the innocent and hardworking people of Katsina, Benue, Plateau, Yobe, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kaduna and Bauchi. Their traits, like every terrorist group, are hijackings, kidnappings, bombing of important targets, assassinations and barricade-hostage incidents. These are what northern residents experience from these heartless groups such that many governors in the North have raised the alarm over the incessant attacks by these herdsmen and bandits resulting in the destruction of properties and death of hundreds of innocents citizens .

We heard of Governor Samuel Ortom’s disclosure of how he narrowly escaped death in his farm, located at Adeke, along Makurdi-Naka road, when suspected herdsmen shot at him. The governor had always maintained that armed herdsmen, ISWAP, ISIS and Boko Haram are the same thing and they are out to prosecute the same agenda, “There are no two ways about that.”

In a recent alarm, Ortom called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare armed Fulani herdsmen who are killing innocent people in communities of Benue State as terrorists. His call was sequel to many attacks by the herdsmen, including that on Tse-Chembe community, near Anyiin, in Logo Local Government Area, where the herders murdered some persons in cold blood and left many others badly injured. By declaring the herdsmen operating in Benue and other states terrorists, there will be an end to the wave of impunity and guarantee the rule of law.

When also the governors of the eastern state cried out over the attacks of herdsmen in their states, it looked as if all the calls bounced off the wall of the Presidency. If it was expedient for the Federal Government to declare the group known as the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist group, how come the same Federal Government is waiting for governors to raise the alarm about the activities of herdsmen before the herders and bandits are declared terrorists? That we are encircled by the activities of terrorists, namely, Boko Haram in the North-East, bandits in the North-West and herdsmen in the Middle Belt an southern parts means that we have left undone needed security measures.

Many questions are flying around over the snail’s pace of the President Muhammed Buhari government in declaring these rampaging blood-thirsty criminals as terrorists, which truly they are. Instead, the President is always quick to castigate, condemn and promise the affected communities protection. This routine statements are not enough in such a situation. Knowing fully well that human lives are being wasted, and when these vandals assess the government’s reactions and they find out that the government is merely blowing hot without any policy statement, they continue in their terrorist acts.

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It is not only the President that should be blamed. All the affected state governors should share in the blame. After all, they hold Northern Governors’ Forum, where issues affecting their states are discussed. How come they never deemed it necessary to bring the issue of the rampaging herdsmen and bandits to the table and jointly declare them as terrorists?

Instead, what the governors of Kaduna, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, and Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State did was to secretly visit these vandals in their hideout and allegedly settled them with millions of taxpayers’ money.

Security observers had expected these misled governors to draw the attention of security agents to their findings and allow them to smoke them out of their hideouts. Today, they have seen the futility of their engagement and negotiations. At the end of their futile visits, is it not the military that was at the finally invited to add their states as new war frontiers? As I was writing this piece, news broke on July 11, 2020, that the presidential operational mandate to the military to decisively stamp out banditry from the North-West zone yielded success as scores of the bandits who were reported to have rustled unconfirmed number of cows around Daki Takwas and Tas were eliminated at Anka and Talata Mafara LGAs of Zamfara State during an operation.

The troops successfully recovered 302 rustled cows and 412 sheep.

Despite this recent operational success, President Buhari ought to heed to the alarm raised by Governor Ortom of Benue State (the state, the “Food Basket of the Nation”) and declare the herdsmen and bandits as terrorists.

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OUR CONDOLENCES

SECURITY FILE comniserates with the producer of AIT programme, Security Watch Africa, Mr. Patrick Akpambu, who lost his elder sister, Mrs. Ngozi Akpambu. May her soul rest in the Lord.