The house of representatives have once again urged the President of Nigeria Mohammadu Buhari to declare Bandits terrorists within 24 hours.
They gathered in grieve and in the second attempt urged the president to declare bandits terrorists so that the Nigerian soldiers could be able to camp and tackle them with full force.
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They made the statement on Thursday when the Training and Doctrine Command of the Nigerian Army in Minna, Niger State, came for budget defence earlier.
However, the statement on behalf of the house of reps was declared by Namdas who in details called for bandits terrorist tag.
In his words, he stated:
“My committee members have said I should repeat what I said yesterday before TRADOC yesterday, that they are a training institution and we charge them to train more on terrorism and banditry because these are actually challenging issues.”
“That was the main reason why we in the National Assembly – both the House and the Senate – have passed a resolution urging the President to also designate bandits as terrorists so that it can enable the Army to tackle the challenge headlong. We know at the moment that there are technical challenges with using our equipment because of certain conditions.”
“At least, we urge the President to please help sign this because right now, the activities of bandits are getting even more sophisticated – more than even what is happening in the North-East.”
“It is our hope that the Armed Forces Fund Bill currently awaiting concurrence at the Senate, when passed and assented to by the President, will help tackle some of these major challenges”
“In 2021, the capital (expenditure) was N29bn; today, in 2022, it is N28bn. So, instead of moving up, it is going down. Actually, the money is very small. There is a need for us to sit down and see how we can help the Army move forward.”
“Agreed, we have done enough in the supplementary budget, but the capital component of it for the whole 2022 is N28bn. We can’t do much with the money.”
“Another challenge we are faced with is that, even if you have 100 per cent of the money on the ground, you have to place an order. Army equipment is not something you buy over the shelf.”
“Even when you placed (an order for) Tucanos, it took you how many years to get here? Even if you budget this year and you go and inspect certain things, you will not see them immediately because they come based on the timing that is allowed.”
“Earlier before the closed-door session, Yahaya, who noted that it was his first time of officially defending the Nigerian Army’s budget before the committee, said the last two years had “indeed been challenging”, especially due to the coronavirus pandemic.”
