…Says only citizens can end security challenges
Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai has said 99 percent of kidnappers, bandits, terrorists and armed robbers in the country are Nigerians.
Fielding questions from State House correspondents Monday after a close-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Buratai said since crimes were being perpetrated by Nigerians, there’s need for the citizens to be sharing information with security personnel.
He said all citizens should be part of the solutions to the security challenges facing the country.
Buratai said: “As to whether banditry, terrorism and so on will end, I think it all depends. If Nigerians want it to end today, I can assure you it will end if everybody joins hands because these bandits are not outside Nigeria, they are not from foreign land.
“These terrorists, 99 percent of them are Nigerians. These kidnappers I will say 100 percent of them are Nigerians. So it’s not just a military, security agency task to end the insecurity in this country. It’s only when it goes bad that we are called in, but everybody has the responsibility to handle that.
“Some of the insecurities are as old as history itself and it all depends on what you are doing to contain or defeat it at a particular time. It is the totality of your effort that will determine the escalation or containment of the insecurity in the country.
“Is not today that we have been containing with armed robbery, as far as I know, armed robbery has been existing in this country even before we were born and it’s still going on. Kidnapping too is as old as the history of the country but it all depends on the level it being perpetuated at a particular time.”
“Terrorism is relatively new and insurgency, we have had that experience before and we contained it, just like the different crises we have had in different locations. We had the Maitatsine issue, few other uprising in history, we have contained them, the unfortunate civil war has come to an end. So any other crisis will also come to an end.
“The terrorism, insurgency will come to an end but the important thing is that it’s been contained. It is not allowed to spread the way it used to be. Whatever that is happening, you can only be apprehensive and express discontentment where there is serious insecurity and nothing is being done.
“But if serious effort is being done to contain the situation, I believe the right thing for any right thinking individual to do is to be hopeful and support the efforts of all the agencies that are involved in containing the situation.
“There are setbacks that can occur in such military operations or any security operations but that does not mean inability to handle it, incompetence to handle it, as long as the efforts are there and are visible, the support of all and sundry will be required to address it squarely.
“Like I said, if we want it to end, the totality of the people’s effort must be put into it to see that insecurity in the country is reduced to the barest minimum.
“But if we don’t do anything and continue to complain, and continue to accuse the agencies involved in fighting it, then we are not helping matters. You are supposed to find solutions as something is being done on daily basis. I assure you that we will soon reach the end of the tunnel and we will see the light that will improve the security situation in all parts of the country,” he said.
He said the security situation in the North-west was already improving due to steps taken by officers and men of the Nigerian Army in collaboration with other security agencies.
The army chief commended security personnel involved in operations in some parts of the country for doing a good job, adding that normalcy would soon be restored to the troubled areas.
