ABUJA — The Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd.), has explained how security forces have been able to rescue abducted victims without killing or arresting the terrorists holding them.
Musa said the strategy involved locating the terrorists, cutting off their escape routes and denying them access to essential supplies such as food, water and fuel.
The minister spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, amid concerns over the persistence of kidnapping for ransom and questions about recent military operations in which troops rescued victims without engaging their captors in deadly confrontations.
He said security forces could force terrorists to abandon their captives by strategically surrounding their locations and cutting off their means of survival.
According to Musa, terrorists often flee when they detect the presence of security forces, particularly when confronted with aerial surveillance or drones, leaving their victims behind.
“Sometimes if you carry out manoeuvres. The funny thing is, the terrorists too don’t want to die. I hope you know that. All this one they’re doing carrying weapons, they don’t want to die.
“So once there’s anything, even if it’s a drone that comes, you see them scatter away and leave everybody. That’s what happens,” he said.
Musa said the military’s approach was to deny the terrorists access to supplies that enable them to remain in their hideouts.
“So what we normally do is once we’re able to identify where they are, we block avenues for them. Like I said, take out the oxygen, they will die,” he said.
He added that individuals who secretly supplied terrorists with fuel, water and food were helping to sustain their operations.
“As long as people go to support to sneak in, give them fuel, give them water, give them food, give them all this, these are the things that are making them thrive. Once they don’t have that, they can’t survive,” he said.
The minister also said ransom payments could provide security agencies with opportunities to trace the financial activities of terrorists and their networks.
He said the Central Bank of Nigeria was working to track funds suspected to be linked to criminal activities.
“I’m happy that the CBN too is living up to expectation, trying to make sure that even if we were able to trace monies that are coming in from those other areas, we can track back where they are,” Musa said.
Musa also appealed to state governors to reconsider the distribution of motorcycles as palliatives, warning that some of the motorcycles could eventually find their way into the hands of terrorists and provide them with increased mobility.
“We try to appeal to even governors to stop selling motorcycle—giving motorcycles out as palliatives. Because these motorcycles are the same ones that still end up with these terrorists into using,” he said.
He urged governments that must distribute motorcycles as part of empowerment programmes to consider lower-capacity models that would be less useful to armed groups.
“Even if you have to give, don’t give them the big capacity motorcycles, give them the small capacity ones that they won’t be able to use to run around, because that gives them leverage. They can easily enter and then disappear,” he said.
The defence minister further alleged that motorcycles distributed through constituency projects and palliative programmes could subsequently find their way into the hands of bandits.
He stressed the need for greater scrutiny of items distributed under government empowerment and relief programmes to prevent them from being diverted to criminal groups.
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