The House of Representatives Committee on Army has once again requested President Muhammadu Buhari to label bandits as terrorists in order for the Nigerian Armed Forces to thoroughly repress them.
The committee’s Chairman, Abdulrazak Namdas, made the request when the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Farouk Yahaya, came before the committee on Friday in Abuja to defend the proposed budget for 2022.
It was the committee’s second time pressing Buhari to take action within 24 hours.
On September 30, 2021, a day after the Senate passed the resolution, the House requested Buhari to declare bandits who have ruled the North-West and sections of the North-Central geopolitical zones, as terrorists, as well as their sponsors.
The legislators made the demand earlier this week when the Nigerian Army’s Training and Doctrine Command visited Minna, Niger State, for budget defense.
In his welcome address on Friday, Namdas said, “My committee members have said I should repeat what I said yesterday before TRADOC yesterday, that they are a training institution and we charge them to train more on terrorism and banditry because these are actually challenging issues.
“That was the main reason why we in the National Assembly – both the House and the Senate – have passed a resolution urging the President to also designate bandits as terrorists so that it can enable the Army to tackle the challenge headlong. We know at the moment that there are technical challenges with using our equipment because of certain conditions.
“At least, we urge the President to please help sign this because right now, the activities of bandits are getting even more sophisticated – more than even what is happening in the North-East.”
Namdas also observed that the morale of officers and men of the Nigerian Army was low in terms of accommodation, noting that they could only be the best if they were psychologically stable.
