President Muhammadu Buhari has on Thursday, June 10 directed military and the police to “be ruthless” against bandits terrorising the north-west region of the country.
Bandits have scaled up attacks on states in the north-west and in the north-central, kidnapping and killing citizens.
The president declared this during an interview with Arise TV broadcast on Thursday, saying;
Problem in the north-west; you have people over there stealing each other’s cattle and burning each other’s villages. Like I said , we are going to treat them in the language they understand. We have given the police and the military the power to be ruthless. You watch it in a few weeks’ time there will be difference.
He expressed;
We told them if we keep people away from their farm, we are going to starve. And the government can’t control the public. If you allow hunger, the government is going to be in trouble and we don’t want to be in trouble. We are already in enough trouble. So we warn them sooner than later you’ll see the difference.
It would be recalled that the statement “treat them in the language they understand” generated outrage last week after tweeting about it while referencing the civil war.
The president had warned insurrectionists against destroying the country, however the tweet was deleted by Twitter.
Read Also: Twitter Deletes Buhari’s ‘Civil War’ Tweet Threatening Arsonists In South East
In reaction, federal government suspending the microblogging platform and directed National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to immediately commence the process of licensing all Over-The-Top (OTT) media services and social media operations in Nigeria.
