Shehu added that the “no-fly zone” order on the Zamfara airspace was informed by reports that helicopters were flown in by gangs engaged in illegal mining of gold deposits in the state, adding that the criminal gangs allegedly supply arms to bandits in exchange.
President Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly ordered the military to shoot on sight on anyone seen with AK-47 rifle in the bushes across Nigeria.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, reportedly told BBC Hausa Services in an interview on Wednesday.
Bandits operate with AK-47 and have been kidnapping, killing and maiming people across Nigeria. What is believed to be banditry kidnapping and killing innocent people in the North West are, however, seen differently in the South particularly South West, where all the kidnappings, killings and other criminal activities are tagged against the Fulani peoole.
To the section of Yoruba involving Sunday Igboho and supported by Femi Fani-Kayode and Professor Akintoye, activities of these cross-country bandits are of Fulani race fighting to take over their own land in what they describe as actualisation of President Buhari’s Northernisation and Islamisation Agenda, a campaign championed by Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
Some Northern leaders believe that there are foreigners who may be Fulani from war zones of West Africa, who use AK47 riffles in those foreign war zones to protect themselves but which pictures some media in Nigeria project to be Fulani of Nigeria.
They also believe some intruders exist who are responsible for the herders, farmers clashes because they used their cows to eat up crops in the farms for food security purposes and reason for which they prevailed in Federal Government to give bailout to herders to do ranches and then end open graving, a workable solution the same Southerners crying of “killer Fulani herdsmen” vehemently objected.
Their objection to bailout for herders was predicated upon claim that it is the Fulani’s private business and that they have no right to buy land for ranching in their region except they go and do it in the North, they happily advocate pressurisingly the same Federal Government’s bailout for their own in businesses and sell land to other tribe to the extent that a particular Federal Constituency is today ceded via election victory to non-Northern tribe in Yoruba Lan state of Lagos.
The Northern leaders also agree that there are bad eggs in Fulani race just like there are also in Yoruba and Igbo tribes and so warned against ethnic profiling by which every Fulani man is now an endangered specie in Southern cimuities. They insisted that Fulani generally are economic people going about their business in peace with just one stick and in worst scenario dane gun, adding that any criminal, regardless of his tribe and religion, must be treated as criminal.
However, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State was criticised in Southern concentrated media for what they described as his defending the Fulani herdsmen carrying AK47 riffle, when he allegedly said they used it to protect themselves from cattle rustlers and other criminals.
The criticisms went down when the Chairman of Northern Governors’ Forum and Governor of Plateau State, Sir Simon Lalong, went on television and exposed the balanced report whereas only the Fulani herdsmen carrying AK47 the media have told Nigerians in their reportage of herders, farmers clashes in the country, that farmers also carry AK47 adding that it is only fair for media to give the true picture of the problem at hand to enable solution providers do their job successfully.
Under the Nigerian law, no individual is expected to be seen with AK47 riffle except the military officers, but it is very common in Nigeria to see individuals with AK47.
Garba Shehu, the Presidential Spokesman, said the President had ordered military commanders to shoot anyone with AK47.
According to him, President Buhari was determined to end wanton killings of people by bandits in Zamfara and other parts of the country.
Shehu added that the “no-fly zone” order on the Zamfara airspace was informed by reports that helicopters were flown in by gangs engaged in illegal mining of gold deposits in the state, adding that the criminal gangs allegedly supply arms to bandits in exchange.
“The President has ordered security forces to go into the bushes and shoot whoever they see with sophisticated weapons like AK47,” he told the BBC Hausa Service.
