We’ll Hire Foreign Mercenaries If FG Fails To Tackle Terrorism, says El-Rufai – Nexus News
Malam Nasir El-Rufai, The Governor of Kaduna State, has threatened to bring in foreign mercenaries to face terrorists hibernating in forests areas surrounding Kaduna State if the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari cease to address the terrorism head-on.
El-Rufai, who spoke with Newsmen shortly after meeting the president on the recent killings in Kaduna State including Monday’s bomb explosion on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line which took nine lives with an unspecified number of persons kidnapped, disclosed that state governors will have no choice but to take action to safeguard the lives and properties of their people.
Speaking in Hausa, El-Rufai said: “I have complained to Mr president and I swear to God, if action is not taken, we as governors will take actions to protect the lives of our people.
“If it means deploying foreign mercenaries to come and do the work, we will do it to address these challenges.”
Recall that the Nigerian government under former President Goodluck Jonathan was in 2015 blamed for bringing in mercenaries from South Africa to fight Boko Haram even though the then federal government had denied the report.
However, El-Rufai who noted that the president has promised him that action will be taken to end terrorism in the next few months, stressed that the best way to address terrorism once and for all was for the Nigerian Armed Forces to blast forest enclaves where terrorists are hiding.
Reacting to Monday’s attack on the rail line, he said: “They came ready and they have been preparing for a long time and knew which coach to attack, abduct the VIP.
“And I have been saying that the forests where these bandits are hiding, it is high time that we go there and bomb them all. Everyone in the forest should be killed.
“Unless this is done, this problem will persist and it is capable of destroying Nigeria as a whole.”
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“These people (terrorists) are getting money. The way they are so emboldened; they fear no authority, no soldier and so why won’t security agents go to their enclaves and kill them all?
“We know where they are, SSS gives reports on them every day, they have their numbers including that of Dogo Guide and what he is planning,” he said.
The governor also made it known that his administration will not pay ransom for the freedom of the kidnapped passengers even though he said the terrorists are yet to make specific request.
He said, “They have contacted some of the families but they have not made specific demands yet.
“They are not the ordinary kidnappers, it’s Boko Haram members that connived with bandits to launch the attack and so our thought is, they may demand the government to pay the ransom.”
He promised that security personnel were working relentlessly to find the terrorists and save the passengers, noting that government will always give priority in saving the lives of citizens over everything.
