Despite court order, FG delays declaration of bandits as terrorists
…Nigeria needs to follow international best practices — Malami
Abimbola Abatta and Uthman Salami
More than a month after an Abuja Court proscribed bandit groups in Nigeria and declared them as terrorists, the Federal Government has delayed gazette of the pronouncement.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), who explained the reason for the delay on Tuesday, said the government is following international best practices.
He, however, noted that his office was in the process of gazetting the court judgment, adding that the process would be concluded in a matter of days.
Recall that in November 2021, Justice Taiwo Taiwo, Abuja Division of the Federal High Court held in a ruling that activities of Yan Bindiga and Yan Ta’adda bandit groups constitute acts of terrorism.
The declaration followed after an ex parte motion the Federal Government filed through the Federal Ministry of Justice.
The FG had told the court that intelligence reports affirmed that the bandit groups masterminded several killings, abductions, rapes, kidnappings and related acts of criminality in the north-east, north-central and other parts of the country.
On why his office has done gazetting of the court order, the senior advocate said, “The gazetting of a court order or judgment is a process, but what matters fundamentally within the context of 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,” he noted.
Meanwhile, following the delay in declaring bandits as terrorists, Nigerians have questioned why the Federal Government had, as a matter of urgency, declared Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Boko Haram as terrorists.
In reaction to this, Malami said the government acted swiftly in declaring the duo of IPOB and Boko Haram as terror groups because of the “threat to lives and properties they have caused in the nation.”
According to him, “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 threat to lives and properties they have caused in the nation. Boko Haram was proscribed.”
The AGF said further, “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.”
