Presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has directed security agencies to shoot anyone seen with AK-47.
Garba Shehu said this in an interview with the BBC, adding that the president had directed a clampdown on bandits who refused to surrender.
“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.”
Garba Shehu shed light on why the federal government declared Zamfara a no-fly zone. He said the decision followed intelligence that arms were being transported to the bandits with private jets.
He disclosed that the intelligence report also suggested that the jets were also used to cart away gold from the state to Dubai. This informed 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.
“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.”
