WE CANNOT DECLARE BANDITS TERRORISTS WITHOUT FOLLOWING DUE PROCEDURE ~ SAYS DEFENCE MINISTER

The Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd.), has defended Federal Government’s refusal to declare bandits as terrorists. He said the need to follow due process was responsible for the delay.
Magashi, who stated this on Friday, in Maiduguri, while fielding questions from journalists, added that there was a procedure that needed to be followed before such a declaration could be made.

“We are not declaring them terrorists because there is a procedure for doing that. When the procedure is followed, they will be classified as terrorists. We are waiting for the procedure to be completed,” Magashi said.

The News Agency of Nigeria reported that the minister, who was in Maiduguri with the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor and Service Chiefs on an assessment visit of the fight against insurgency in the North-East, expressed satisfaction with the successes so far recorded.

Reacting, PANDEF spokesman, Ken Robinson, asked the Minister to tell Nigerians what such procedures were and why they were not followed before the Indigenous People of Biafra and other groups were proscribed by the regime.

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