Nigeria’s President,
Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, has directed security agencies to shoot anyone
seen with AK-47.
The Senior Special Assistant to the president on Media and
Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in an interview with the BBC.
He said the President directed a clampdown on bandits who
have refused to surrender.
On the efforts being made to rid Zamfara and other northern
states of bandits, Shehu said the government is resorting to lethal force.
“The president has ordered security forces to go into the
bushes and shoot whoever they see with sophisticated weapons like AK-47,” he
said in the interview.
“He ordered that whoever is seen with terrible weapons at all
should be shot immediately.”
Shehu also said the federal government declared Zamfara a
no-fly zone following intelligence that arms were being transported to the
bandits with private jets.
He said the jets are also used to cart away gold from the
state to Dubai, which, according to him, prompted the ban on mining activities
also announced on Tuesday.
“These jets are being used to pick up gold that is being
mined in some parts of Zamfara and exported. This is strong because at the
moment,” he said.
“There is a Nigerian gold market in Dubai. The government is
losing, the people of this country are losing, that’s why it is said that gold
mining is banned for those who are not made by the government.”
The ban on mining activities in Zamfara was first announced
in April 2017 amid reports that actors going after the state’s gold reserves
are fuelling its security crisis.
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