Senator Shehu Sani has said that terrorists and bandits operating in the North-East and North-West of Nigeria are not foreigners, but people from the region. 

Sani who represented Kaduna Central in the 9th Assembly, stated this during a public discussion on insecurity. He insisted that for insecurity to be a thing of the past in the North, leaders of the region must lead the solution.

According to him, claims that terrorists and bandits come from Mail, Malawi or any other African countries are misleading.

“The terrorists killing people in the North East are not from Congo, Malawi, Libya or Egypt; they are northerners, and they are Muslims. We must be honest about this. The bandits in the North-West are not from Senegal, Mali, Morocco, Guinea or Guinea-Bissau, they are Fulani from the North-West of Nigeria”he said

Explaining how he believes the issue should be addressed, Sani argued that the region must stop externalising the problem.

“It is for us to solve this problem, not anybody else, they are not speaking Chinese or Spanish. They speak Fulani, Hausa and Kanuri. These are our languages.”

On how many armed men are involved, the chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna, said the number of active fighters is not as large as many assume.

“The total number of bandits and terrorists is not more than 5,000”he said

Sani urged Northern leaders to decide when they will confront the issue directly and design a regional security response based on accurate information about the groups involved.