President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday stated that the government is growing desperate in its attempt to curb the rising spate of insecurity across the country.
While addressing traditional rulers at the State House in Abuja, President Buhari said the shoot-on-sight order he gave earlier in March stemmed from the fact that the criminals threatening the peace of the nation seem not to be running out of armour.
“I assure you, we are doing our best, our best hasn’t proved to be good enough, and we are getting desperate.”
The president however noted that he has given orders to the military to ensure that in a few weeks the nation must experience a difference.
Speaking further, the commander-in-chief told the traditional rulers that the youths most especially must understand that making the country insecure will drive investors from coming into the country.
“One thing that went to the press which I read by myself was that Anybody with AK-47 should be shot because AK-47 is supposed to be registered and it is only given to security officials.
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“We closed the borders you know for how many years, but the intelligence report I am getting on a daily basis shows that those who are conducting the abductions, the killings, and so on, still don’t seem to be short of arms and ammunition.
“I see how they attacked police stations, killed the police, ransacked the armoury and the magazine.
“The state government is saturated, the local government is saturated and nobody will bring a kobo to invest in Nigeria if we keep on making Nigeria insecure. And so that message must be told to the youths.”
President Buhari on Thursday, March 4, asked security forces to shoot anyone carrying a rifle in the bush, as part of efforts to secure the country.
Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, revealed this in an interview with BBC Hausa.
The directive appeared to be specific to bushes in Zamfara and other parts of Northern Nigeria.
“The president has ordered the security forces to go into the woods and shoot anyone they see with an AK 47 rifle,” Shehu said.
