Shehu Sani teases federal government asking it to categorise bandits as civil servants

FORMER Kaduna Central Senatorial District lawmaker Senator Shehu Sani has teased the federal government urging it to categorise bandits terrorising large parts of the northwest as civil servants if it cannot label them terrorists.

Over recent years, northwestern Nigeria has been taken over by heavily-armed gunmen who pillage, kidnap, rape and carry out sporadic raids across the region. Large swathes of states like Zamfara, Kaduna and Katsina have become no-go areas but despite the reign of terror unleashed by these hoodlums, the federal government has refused to designate them as terrorists.

Lamenting the fact that these so-called bandits have resorted to killing both Christian and Muslim worshippers in their religious houses, Senator Sani took to Twitter to condemn the government prevarication. He urged the federal government to declare the bandits as federal civil servants since it has failed to view them as terrorists.

Senator Sani tweeted, “They killed Muslim worshippers in their mosques in Niger and Katsina states and they killed Christians in their churches in Kaduna State. If the government doesn’t want to declare them terrorists, it should declare them federal civil servants.”

Over the weekend,  gunmen invaded Baptist Church, Kakau Daji in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, killing two while scores were said to have been abducted. Reverend Joseph Hayab, the chairman of the Kaduna State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, said the attack was another sad story of how deteriorating our insecurity has become.

Reverend Hayab added, “Citizens are being killed like chickens with only press statements as consolation. These evil people have troubled us for too long."