FG Won't Use Foreign Mercenaries to Fight Bandits - NSA

Posted by Thandiubani on Thu 11th Mar, 2021 - tori.ng

The federal government has revealed it will not employ the services of mercenaries to tackle insecurity.

Bandits

The call for the federal government to hire foreign mercenaries to battle terrorists and bandits has been rejected.

The rejection was made public by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (Rtd) on Thursday during the weekly ministerial briefing at the State House in Abuja.

He said government would rather deploy all necessary forces to eliminate criminals.

He also said negotiating with terrorists and bandits is not one of its plans to secure the country.

Responding to a question from journalists on renewed calls by North-east governors on the federal government to engage foreign mercenaries in the fight against Boko Haram terrorists, Monguno said Nigeria has both the personnel and equipment to achieve victory over these internal security challenges.

“The President’s view and directive is that we will not engage mercenaries when we have our own people to deal with these problems. We have the personnel and resources, and the President has given a new lease of life to the Armed Forces,” he said.

Also, on suggestions by some individuals and groups to enter into negotiations with bandits, kidnappers, insurgents and other categories of criminals, the NSA ruled out negotiating with criminals.

He, however, said the government would not succumb to blackmail and the use of criminals by proxies to harass innocent citizens, adding that that it would rather deploy all necessary force to eliminate criminals.

“While government is not averse to talking with these entities, it also has to fully apply its weight. You can’t (negotiate) with people who are unreliable and who will continue to hurt society. We will apply the full weight of the government to deal with these criminals."