By Adegboyega Adeleye
As Nigeria continues to grapple with kidnappings, banditry and terrorist attacks across several parts of the country, the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Adewole Adebayo, has argued that the Federal Government possesses the required capacity to end insecurity if it wants.
Adebayo made the assertion during an appearance on Vanguard’s political affairs programme, Politics Hub. He dismissed suggestions that insecurity is being orchestrated by opposition politicians, insisting that security remains the primary responsibility of any government in power.
Reacting to recent claims by some political actors that opposition elements are behind rising insecurity, Adebayo said such arguments divert attention from the real issue.
“Insecurity is the opposite of security. So insecurity just means failure of security,” he said.
“And who is in charge of security? The government of the day. Not only this government, every incumbent government is in charge of security.”
The SDP chieftain maintained that the country’s security agencies and political leaders are aware of the locations and operations of criminal groups terrorising communities across Nigeria.
“These kidnappers; I have never known any case of kidnapping where I don’t know where the kidnappers are,” he said.
“I know where they are exactly. So the governor knows where they are. Tinubu knows where they are. Nuhu Ribadu knows where they are. The Inspector General knows where they are.”
Adebayo reserved his strongest criticism for what he described as the government’s handling of banditry and terrorism, arguing that criminal groups would disappear if there was a determined effort to eliminate them.
“Even President Tinubu; if by Christmas, if he does not want to see any bandit, the bandits will go away,” he said.
“Everyone is a bandit or Boko Haram until the bullet hits them in the forehead.”
According to him, the persistence of insecurity is not due to a lack of capacity but rather a lack of commitment to ending it.
“So, if the government want to get rid of bandits, they will. But they have complicated themselves into it because they need bandit leaders to help them with elections. They need to make money out of the banditry and they need to cover this, cover that,” Adebayo alleged.
“So if the president says I do not want to see any bandits, he won’t see any bandit.”
The SDP presidential candidate further claimed that insecurity has become a convenient justification for government spending, arguing that security-related expenditures are often difficult for citizens to scrutinise.
“If a governor says, I spent N100 billion on the road between Shomolu and Bariga, people will ask, where is the road?” he said.
“Then if he says, I spent N500 billion to rescue people from kidnappers, you cannot say, where is the receipt from the kidnappers, because kidnappers don’t give you a receipt.”
Faults terrorists rehabilitation project
Adebayo also criticised rehabilitation programmes for repentant terrorists and bandits, describing them as evidence of what he called “an unhealthy relationship between government institutions and criminal elements”.
“The kidnappers, the bandits, the terrorists are enemies of the people. But it doesn’t mean that they are enemies of the government,” he said.
“That’s why the government has a retirement package for them. When they have used them for some time, they will say we are rehabilitating you.”
He maintained that defeating insecurity in Nigeria requires decisive leadership and a clear commitment to treating terrorists, kidnappers and bandits as enemies of the state rather than as actors to be accommodated.
The post ‘If Tinubu says terrorism must end, it will end, but…’ — Adebayo, SDP presidential candidate appeared first on Vanguard News.
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