Nigeria: Buhari promises better security, says to arrest, try, jail criminals

Securtiy
President Muhammadu Buhari

By Kehinde Adeoye

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that his government stands against every form of criminality and disruption in the country, and anyone caught in the act would be arrested, tried and jailed.

Buhari, said this during an exclusive interview with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Friday night.

According to him, the government will give criminals bad publicity, making reference to the crisis that erupted during last year’s #EndSARS protests, where he said over 200 buses and several public properties were destroyed.

Buhari said: “We will arrest them, try them, give them very bad publicity and then jail them so that people will know that if they misbehave they will not get away with it,” promising to go hard on criminals and bandits, and assured Nigerians on better security.

The President also said those who accused him of double standard when addressing security concerns in different regions are being unfair, affirming that the government had deployed the police and military to deal with the bandits terrorizing the country.

“They are being unfair, they should go and ask the governors of Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina and find out how we have been deploying the police and the military to deal with the bandits. We are not sparing anybody, but Nigeria is vast and there are a lot of forests.”

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While noting frustrations of Nigerians on security issues, President Buhari assured that the government is doing a lot but it takes time to put together some logistics.

“We are doing a lot, the problem is, if you order helicopter, you order fighter aircrafts, you order tanks, it takes time,” Bubari said.

Speaking further, he said, “we got our vehicles from Jordan, from China and these things, you have to take them to our institutions where they personnel will be trained.

“You get people to train Nigerians, stock spare parts before you take them to operational areas. These things take time especially when you don’t have much foreign exchange.”

• Adeoye reporting from WEPUSH media.