A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Buba Galadima, has mocked President Muhammadu Buhari over the recent tagging of bandits as terrorists.
Recall that Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had declared that the activities of bandits in Nigeria are acts of terrorism.
In a ruling, the court also directed the federal government to publish its judgement in the official gazette.
But in an interview with Vanguard at the weekend, Galadima dismissed the tagging of bandits as terrorists, describing the move as a waste of time and a show of ignorance.
He disclosed that bandits don’t have an address or location where they can be arrested, saying that the activities of bandits can be tackled if there is a political will.
Galadima asked the government to enact a law directing that anyone caught doing banditry would be executed or face public death.
The former ally of President Buhari, however, revealed that the proscription of bandits has shown that the Federal Government knows the identity of the criminals.
He said: “In all honesty, don’t you think it is a waste of time? There are implications for this declaration. Those who declared these bandits as illegal or outlaws suggest that they know who the bandits are and have not done anything about them.
“For me, it’s a waste of time and a show of ignorance on the part of those who did that because I don’t know who answers bandits, whether they have address or location in such a manner that when they do banditry, you know where you can arrest them.
The highest the authorities could have done is to propagate an act or law saying that anyone caught doing banditry would face public execution or firing squad or whatever. But you can’t declare somebody without an address, without name an outlaw.
“You can only deal with the action. The action of banditry can be tackled. If you catch somebody in the act, you can deal with the person, but not outlaw the person because the people are faceless. If you outlaw bandits, you are telling us that all along you know who they are, you have been lying and you are in synergy with them.”
This article was originally published on Naija News