By Godwin Akomah, Lagos
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday disclosed that he had given instruction to the police and Armed Forces to be ruthless with bandits and vandals terrorising Nigerians in parts of the country.
Citing North - West where banditry and cattle rustling are rife, Buhari said he had given the police and the military order to be ruthless and treat bandits in “the planguage they understand.”
The President spoke in an interview session with Arise Television. The Daily Crucible monitored it.
“Problem in the north-west; you have people over there stealing each other’s cattle and burning each other’s villages. Like I said , we are going to treat them in the language they understand.
“We have given the police and the military the power to be ruthless. You watch it in a few weeks’ time there will be difference.
”Because we told them if we keep people away from their farms, we are going to starve. And the government can’t control the public.
“If you allow hunger, the government is going to be in trouble and we don’t want to be in trouble. We are already in enough trouble. So we warn them sooner than later you’ll see the difference,” he assured.
He lamented that farmers/herders clashes in the country, saying the issue had remained because old cattle routes and grazing areas had been taken over by development.
According to him, those that had coveted and taken possession of such traditional arrangements would be dispossessed of them.
However, Buhari persisted in attributing the cause of the parlous state of the nation's economy and the attendant challenges to the alleged wastefulness of his predecessors.
"The previous earn more with nothing on ground. Did you ask them where they kept our money? If I knew where, may be I would not borrow. They sold oil at $100, we sell at $25 sometimes.
"They wasted money on power, no light, no road, no rail. We are the ones constructing bridges, building roads and rails.
"Today, I'm commissioning Lagos Ibadan Railway, I will commission Lagos Ibadan Expressway later, I will commission more across the country. No country can survive without infrastructures...," the President said.
He also charged the nation's governors to stop buck passing, urging them to take responsibility in tackling the herders - farmers clashes across the country.
Buhari said: "Two SW Governors cae to me to say cattle rearers are destroying farms in their states, I asked them what happened to the grassroot security panels from Traditional Rulers to Local Governments who meet regularly to identify the root of their problems and identify crooks within their environment. Who destroyed this system? Go back and fix it, give your people sense of belongings.
" I don't like it when people campaign to become Governors and people trusted them with their votes and after winning, they can't perform, they're trying to push responsibilities to others.
"..We have three tiers of Government, Federal, State and Local. We have killed the Local Government totally. We will send N300m as allocation to a Local Government, one Governor will ask the LG Chairman to sign that he collected N300m but he will give him N100m and the Chairman will keep quiet...is that how we will continue?"
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