At last, court designate bandits as terrorists

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has finally designated bandits as terrorists after many Nigerians had called for the moves so.

While ruling on an ex-parte motion filed by the Federal Government on Friday, designated bandits in the country as terrorists, the presiding judge, Justice Taiwo Taiwo specifically declared the activities of the bandit groups like “Yan Bindiga Group” and the “Yan Ta’adda Group” and other similar groups in any part of the country, especially in the Northwest and Northcentral geo-political zones, as “acts of terrorism and illegality.”

The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mohammed Abubakar, who filed the motion ex-parte, told the court that President Muhammadu Buhari gave approval for the motion, with the objective of proscribing the “Yan Bindiga” and “Yan Ta’adda” groups, and other terrorist groups in the country.

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Justice Taiwo said he was convinced that such orders were necessary in view of the nefarious activities of bandits and their effects on the people and the nation’s economy.

The ruling equally proscribed the “Yan Bindiga Group and the Yan Ta’adda Group as well as other similar groups in any part of Nigeria, especially in the Northwest and Northcentral geo-political zones, either in groups or as individuals by whatever names they are called.”

The court also restrained “any person or group of persons from participating in any manner whatsoever, in any form of activities involving or concerning the prosecution of the collective intention or otherwise of the Yan Bindiga Group and the Yan Ta’adda Group under any other name or platform however called or described.”

Justice Taiwo also ordered the Federal Government to publish the prosecution and prescription order in the Official Gazette of the government and two national dailies.

The judge also proscribed all other groups in the country, “irrespective of their names, but whose activities and objectives are similar to those of Yan Bindiga Group and the Yan Ta’adda Group.”

The judge listed terror activities to “include, but not limited to banditry, kidnappings for ransom, kidnapping for marriage, mass abductions of school children and other citizens, cattle rustling, enslavement, imprisonment, severe deprivation of physical liberty, torture, rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, other forms of sexual violence, attacks and killings in communities and commuters and wanton destruction of lives and properties in Nigeria.

“The activities of Yan Bindiga and Yan Ta’adda groups and other similar groups constitute acts of terrorism that can lead to a breakdown of public order and safety and is a threat to national security and the corporate existence of Nigeria,” Justice Taiwo ruled.”