Bandits are terrorists in reality —Sen Bulkachuwa

Senator representing Bauchi North senatorial district, Adamu Bulkachuwa has joined calls for bandits and their sponsors to be tagged as terrorists.

According to the senator, the bandits are no different from terrorists, noting that both groups operate in the same way.

This comes days after the House of Representatives and the Senate urged President Muhammadu Buhari to brand bandits and their sponsors as terrorists.

Speaking on a Channels Television programme, Sunday Politics, Bulkachuwa said, “We gave them the name bandit probably to just soft pedal because terrorism in the international arena is regarded as the most heinous crime that any group of people can engage in.”

He maintained that the bandits are terrorists in reality, and queried, “What else are they? Anybody that does not allow people rest, what is he?”

Furthermore, the lawmaker said calling the criminals terrorists “is just giving them their right name.”

“They should be declared terrorists. After all, who is a terrorist, and who is a bandit?”

Read also: Police arrests bandits’ commander, kill five others in Zamfara

“The bandits, the kidnappers, they are all terrorists. They should be declared same so that whichever country they go to, they would be regarded as such,” he added.

Similarly, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana earlier on Sunday, called on the media and Nigerians to stop referring to the criminals as bandits, insisting that they are terrorists.

According to him, the government was “quick to proscribe” those who kidnapped students from Chibok in Borno State, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and others as terrorists but has continued to treat banditry “lightly”.

He said, “But for reasons best known to the Federal Government. The criminal elements who are currently involved in the brutal killing of innocent people and abduction of thousands of people including primary school pupils in the North West Zone are called bandits and not terrorists.”

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