The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Maj.-Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, has disclosed that, rather than checkmate terrorism, and banditry, the amnesty programme for bandits and terrorists in Zamfara and other states, instead helped the terrorists to regroup and reorganise.
Lagbaja disclosed this when he hosted Zamfara state governor, Dauda Lawal at the Army Headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to the COAS, the amnesty programme had inadvertently furnished criminal elements with a golden opportunity to regroup, reorganize, and mercilessly target defenseless citizens.
“We also have the issue of the amnesty programme that has been instituted, and which has failed not only in Zamfara but so many other states of the North West.
“So, I think we need to look at this issue of the amnesty programme for the criminal elements have proven to be incorrigible”, he said.
Lagbaja said he had directed the deployment of more platforms and the release of funds to reactivate more operations to boost troops’ morale in the state.
He said Zamfara crisis is a mix of farmer-herder clashes, ethnic confrontations, and the quest for economic empowerment driven by mining activities.
Earlier, the Governor appealed to the Nigerian Army for continuous support in the deployment of more military wares to support military operations to restore peace in the state.
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Given what the COAS gave as the reasons for the crisis in Zamfara, I think the best solution is law enforcement. There are extant laws guiding the activities of farmers, herders and miners in the country, why haven’t the govt enforce these laws?
Beyond Zamfara, the plethora of security challenges torturing the country is down to corruption. Govts don’t transparently enforce laws and in many circumstances they fail to obey laws and court orders. Therefore, Nigeria’s problems, as Achebe identified, are caused by poor leadership.