Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, has called President Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) to label bandits terrorists immediately and cease treating them lightly.

The security concerns in Nigeria will not be fixed, according to the Pa Ayo Adebanjo-led group, unless the President takes tough action against bandits and kidnappers.

On November 26, Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja authorized the Federal Government’s ex parte application to declare Yan Bindiga (Hausa word for gunmen) and Yan Ta’adda (Hausa word for terrorists) as terrorists, but the Buhari administration has yet to do so one month later.

In the instance of the Indigenous People of Biafra, however, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), was able to have the designation of the Indigenous People of Biafra as terrorists gazetted on the same day that Justice Abdu Kafarati issued the order on September 20, 2017.

In a statement issued on Friday, Afenifere expressed concern that kidnapping, insurgency, and other security threats in the country are escalating to the point where it is necessary to recall retired intelligent retired officers to supplement the efforts of existing security organs to bring the war to an end.

‘Nigeria in war situation over insecurity: Afenifere calls on President Buhari to recall retired soldiers and seek help’, the statement was titled. It was signed by Jare Ajayi, the group’s spokesman.

The group added, “It is disheartening that terrorists had the temerity to launch attacks near Maiduguri on Thursday, December 23, 2021, around the time the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, was visiting Maiduguri and parts of Borno State.

“Apart from the bomb blast that happened in Maiduguri, the Nigeria Immigration Services, also revealed in a letter to its border posts dated December 23, 2021, that terrorists from Mali plan to attack Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.

“The above are aside kidnapping, killing, arson and burning of vehicles conveying people from one place to another as happened on Kaduna highway and in Borno and Katsina States, etc. recently. The near-daily occurrence of kidnapping in Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Imo States among others is intolerable.”

According to Afenifere, the President must come out openly and give people carrying armed illegally a two-week deadline to lay down their armaments.

“Within the period, retired intelligent officers be encouraged to report at the military formations nearest to them with a view to reintegrating them back into the system. Needed weapons and incentives must be provided just as the intelligence units within the security organs be rejigged to weed out the fifth columnists in the army.

“This, it can do successfully, by stopping to treat bandits and terrorists with kid gloves, by genuinely providing needed equipment to the army and other security agencies, by truly engaging the youths into ventures that would earn them a livelihood, by no longer treating some bandits and terrorists as sacred cows and by liberalizing the economy in such a way that the cost of commodities and services in the country would come down considerably.”