El-Rufai insists no pardon for bandits, says they can’t repent

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has said bandits remain hardened criminals and do not repent.

He said they should be crushed at all costs and no pardon for them.

He said this on Tuesday while fielding questions from State House reporters after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on the recent attack that claimed about 40 lives in the state.

The governor, who was accompanied by the State Commissioner for Internal Security, Samuel Aruwan, said the state’s policy is to send the terrorists attacking innocent people to their creator to answer for their crime against humanity.

He said the whereabouts of the bandits were not hidden but that the military was mindful of the collateral damage it could cause the civilian community.

The governor, who urged the security agencies to carry out aggressive operations against the terrorists, stressed the need for recruitment to be ramped up in the military and the police as the few number cannot successfully carry out operations in the 36 states of the federation.

He said, “There is nothing like repentant terrorists. The only repentant bandit is the one that is dead. Our intention in the state is to kill them (terrorists), let them go and see God.”

El-Rufai, who spoke on the three types of terrorists, the Boko Haram elements, the bandits, and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), said the recent declaration of bandits as terrorists by the court had given the military more power to wage war against them.

According to him, if the security forces cannot go to the bandits’ location, the state is helpless.

El-Rufai said he requested the intervention of the President for more deployment of security forces and a comprehensive operation.