‘We don’t have enough boots on the ground, Let’s carpet bomb the forests, Kill all criminals regardless of collateral damage’ – Governor El-rufai

‘We don’t have enough boots on the ground, Let’s carpet bomb the forests, Kill all criminals regardless of collateral damage’ – Governor El-rufai

By: James Bwala

Kaduna state governor, Malam Nasir El-rufai has suggested for the Nigerian Air Force to bomb all forests across the country where bandits and criminals are hiding, stressing that it is the best option to end killings in Nigeria.

The governor, who was speaking with Arise TV at the weekend noted that the country’s forest reserve will also be affected, but that it can be replanted after the Nigerian Air Force must have done the job.

“With the level of massacre by bandits as witnessed in the state in recent times, people, most often, wonder why security forces and the government are unable to prevent killings.

“It’s is a major problem.The security agencies are doing their best, but they are over-stretched. Nigerian Armed Forces are involved in internal security operations in about 32, 33 states.

“There are only about 150,000 of them. Our Police have not recruited in many years.When we came into office, we had about 13,000 policemen in Kaduna.Today, we have 11,000.

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“Yesterday, I was talking to the IG about this and he assured me that they are recruiting 10,000 policemen.Okay, 10,000 policemen across 36 states.How many more can I get?

“So, the reality is that we don’t have enough boots on the ground to address the myriad of security challenges that we face.And these security challenges are asymmetric, they are widespread, they are everywhere.There’s no part of Nigeria that is not facing one security problem or the other.” he said.

He however, suggested a more holistic approach, including “ramping up the number of boots, more technology, more investments in armament, a level of ruthlessness to wipe these bad elements once and for all.

“I have always believed that we should carpet-bomb the forest. We can re-plant the trees after, but let’s carpet-bomb the forests, kill all of them.

“There will be collateral damage, but it’s better to wipe them out and bring peace back to our communities so that agriculture and rural economies can pick up, than to continue this touch and go, touch and go isolated responses to banditry.

“They kill people in Sokoto, you mobilize the Army there and chase them out. They move to Kebbi. From Kebbi, if they are bombed, they move to Kaduna.

“What should be done is to bomb them from the air, ground.Troops on the ground at the same time in all five, six states of the North West plus Niger.And this problem can be sorted out in my view, in weeks.” The governor said.

‘We don’t have enough boots on the ground, Let’s carpet bomb the forests, Kill all criminals regardless of collateral damage’ – Governor El-rufai