Military will soon crush criminals in S’East – Presidency

FEDERAL government has claimed that secession agenda and activities in Nigeria are no longer succeeding due to the failure of secessionists to intimidate and extort money from President Muhammadu Buhari.

  Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, dropped the bombshell at a media interaction at the secretariat of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja.

  According to him, disturbing spate of insecurity in the South East would soon be a thing of the past, as the army would soon crush criminals terrorising the zone.

  On agitation for a national conference to address the country’s challenges, Shehu said there was no need for that as it would not do more than a parliament which was mandated to ensure the sovereignty of Nigerians.

  On the spate of kidnappings and banditry in the country, Shehu said though it was not a commendable development, the act had been on for long, even before the country gained independence. But he blamed the development on bad eggs in our communities who revealed military secrets to bandits.

  “The sponsors of bandits hired him, built a house for him, bought him a Golf car and gave him money to do bigger tea business. Each time an aircraft took off from Katsina Airport to go and operate in Zamfara, he will call them on phone and say they are coming, by the time they get there, the target have disappeared,” he said.

  Shehu said there was need for all hands to be on deck to rid out communities of such informants because the military were as human as we are with blood running in their veins. On the current unrest in the South-East, Shehu said though criminals were fighting to gain upper hand, no criminal or terrorist was bigger than the country. None of them is mightier than our armed forces, this structure has been there, they were certificated and praised, they stabilised the entire West Africa region,” he said.

  Describing the role Nigeria military played in ensuring peace and stability in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Gambia as “stand-out,” Shehu said all the military needed to combat terrorism and acts of banditry in the country was time, support and prayers from Nigerians.