Banditry In North-West Will Become Full-Blown Terrorism If Not Checked—Ex-Reps Member

A former Chairman, House Committee on Internal Security, Hon. Aliyu Gebi has warned that the banditry in the North-West region of Nigerian will turn to terrorism if stakeholders handle it with levity.

He said the country at the moment still lacks total robust machinery to fight security challenges that are peculiar to different ethnic regions.

Gebu, as the national co-ordinator of Security Governance Initiative, said this during a Zoom meeting organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, which was monitored by SaharaReporters.

When speaking on Nigeria’s National Security Challenges: Setting the Agenda for Legislation, Gebu alerted that, “Insecurity in the North-West has different perspectives which is mostly banditry but will eclipse to full-blown terrorism experienced in the North-East if not checked.”

In his speech, he explained that the North-East is the stronghold of Boko Haram insurgents adding that Borno State experienced calamitous attacks of the terrorists. He went further to say that criminal herders are tormenting the North Central while banditry has held the North-West hostage.

He, therefore, lamented that the Nigerian government and the governors are still battling with the intricacies and technical know-how to solve these weird security lapses.

“As a nation, we have not yet developed the capacity and mechanism to defeat this organised criminal franchise. They have developed into ethnic criminalities. The federal government and other stakeholders should build consensus ownership of dealing with this insecurity.”

In his speech, a Professor of African History, Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Ibadan, Isaac Albert, blamed the current state of insecurity on the unresponsiveness of political leaders to the ordeals of the frustrated masses.

“The present moment in Nigeria is the worst. We have been living in denial for a long time. Nigerians are increasingly frustrated by the low-level governance around them.

“Nobody listens to them. Political leaders are living above their means. So when poor people don’t have anything, they will do something for you to look for their service. Insecurity is the product of how we’ve mismanaged the resources of this country.”