Cov/ Bello Wakili, Abuja
Federal Government has declared it won’t negotiate with terrorists and bandits.
National Security Adviser NSA, Major General Babagana Monguno (Rtd), who stated this during the weekly ministerial briefing at the State House in Abuja, said government would rather deploy necessary forces to eliminate criminals.
According to him, negotiating with the criminals would suggest weakness and incapacity on the part of government.
Babagana Monguno (Rtd), explained that government would not succumb to blackmail and the use of criminals by proxies to harass innocent citizens.
He stated that In their various efforts to avert further bloodshed and loss of property, the federal and some state governments had offered to dialogue with outlaws to restore peace and tranquillity to their respective jurisdiction.
“The experiences of such offers though, it is obvious that a good percentage of the criminals that benefitted from the dialogues had betrayed the overtures by returning to criminality” Monguno stated.
This, according to the National Security Adviser, has propelled the government to exert its full weight to oust them.
He acknowledged that insecurity in the country had lingered for so long due to inter-agency rivalry, which criminals have taken advantage of to inflict pain on Nigerians, but said the anomaly had now been addressed.
Retired Major General Monguno appealed to the citizenry to join the fight against insecurity by providing credible intelligence to security agents, but also urged security agencies to act fast on the intelligence provided to achieve the intended purpose quickly.
The National Security Adviser also said government had identified the influential personalities sponsoring insecurity in the land, saying that tactical measures have been set in motion to establish concrete evidence of their involvement in crime.
Cov/BELLO WAKILI