Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) has explained why the Federal Government is yet to officially designate bandits as terrorists even with a court order that has backed the move.
Speaking in an interview on NTA’s Good Morning Nigeria Show, the Minister said the process has taken so much time because they are trying to follow international best practices.
Justifying why the federal government swiftly gazetted the designation of IPOB as terrorists on the same day that Justice Abdu Kafarati gave the order in 2017, Malami claimed that they took into consideration the threats to lives and properties they had caused in the nation.
The AGF also stated that they achieved good results with the move. He said:
“Government has a responsibility to act but within the context of acting, you equally expected to operate within the confines of international best practices associated with engagement and one of such best practices is that you can only use maximum force on groups, individuals that are declared terrorists and that is where the application of the Terrorism Act comes in place.
“With that in mind, Nigeria acted, first by proscribing IPOB, taking into consideration the threats to lives and properties they have caused in the nation. Boko Haram was proscribed.
“Now, we are confronted with another threat in the North-West associated with banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling and in all these, these people are using weapons to attack Nigerians, kidnap them and created a situation of serious security challenge and fear in the system.
“Whatever military hardware you acquire there are limits within the context of the international convention as to how it can be used, when it can be used and against who it can be used. And that is how the idea of looking at the activities of the bandits, cattle rustlers, kidnappers come into being.
“Our assessment taking into consideration that they are causing a major threat to the territorial peaceful co-existence and causing a major threat to lives with weapons, the idea then came about that indeed they (bandits) have satisfied the criteria of being declared terrorists within the context of the law so that whatever military hardware at the disposal of the Federal Government can best be used against them within the context of the international convention and within the context of the law.”
Also explaining why his office is yet to gazette the court order designating bandits as terrorists, Malami said:
“The gazetting of a court order or judgement is a process but what matters fundamentally within the context of the international convention is the judicial declaration and that has been obtained; the court has declared bandits, kidnappers, cattle rustlers as terrorists.
“So, with or without the gazette, what gives effect to such declaration is a judicial pronouncement but the gazette is a mere formality and it has been on and I believe within a matter of days, it will be concluded.”
