Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, has alleged that some politicians are fueling the increasing security challenges, including banditry, kidnaping and other violence in the country.
Buratai, who received the House of Representatives Committee on Army at the Operation Lafiya Dole Headquarters in Maiduguri, Borno State, yesterday attributed the attacks by armed groups in the northwest and north central states to the fallout of the 2019 elections.
“The myriads of security challenges we are facing right now in the northwest, north central and other parts of the country, I believe and rightly so, is a fall-out of the just concluded general election. There are political class interest,” he said.
He said “politicians who saw their defeats as a way of trying to revenge” were sponsoring criminal activities, including banditry, farmers-herders clashes.
He also said there was “strong political undertone and strong political influence” about kidnapping cases in the country. “We have some strong evidence but we are still being conscious so that we don’t get it wrong,” the COAS added.
He urged the National Assembly leadership to call some politicians to order to consider national interest above personal or political interest.
Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Army, Hon. Rimamnde Kwewum, said the committee was in Borno to wrap up its oversight function on Army so as to write its report for the incoming ninth National Assembly.
The committee visited the military hospital and other army locations in the state capital.