He believes the nature of terrorism in the Northwest is far more vicious than the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast....CONTINUE READING
The governor spoke at the weekly Ministerial Briefing organised by the Presidential Media Team at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He said preliminary investigations revealed that some security operatives were working for terrorists.
According to him, while 937 were killed and 1,972 kidnapped by bandits in Kaduna in 2020, a total of 1,192 were killed and 3,348 kidnapped last year.
The governor reiterated that the only answer to ending terrorism in all its forms is by total elimination.
He said terrorists, especially those involved in banditry and kidnapping, have adapted their crime forms into a business, with a financial turnover, their original trades in cattle breeding could not generate.
El-Rufai said the effort to tackle the menace had been uncoordinated.
He said some governors thought negotiating with the criminals would solve the problem but realised that it was a mistake.
On whether the terrorists collude with security agents, El-Rufai said: “Yes, we are concerned and it is not impossible to have infiltrators.
“The preliminary report of Boko Haram financing also showed some links to bandits and pointed to some police and military officers in service as having some communication or connection with the bandits.
“So, there’s always that risk. In any system you have traitors and we’re concerned about that. But to date, we don’t have any firm evidence of that. I think a lot more work needs to be done.
“We need to pursue the financing and logistics chain of banditry as well because the amount of money these bandits are making is enough to destabilise this country. It is a lot of money.
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