The Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd.), has explained why security forces sometimes rescue kidnapped victims without killing or arresting the terrorists holding them.
Musa said the military’s strategy was to locate the terrorists, cut off their escape routes and deny them access to essential supplies, including food, water and fuel, until they are forced to abandon their victims.
The minister spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday against the backdrop of persistent kidnapping for ransom and growing questions over recent military operations in which troops rescued abducted persons without engaging their captors in deadly confrontations.
According to Musa, security forces can effectively neutralise terrorist groups by strategically surrounding their hideouts and cutting off their means of survival.
He explained that terrorists often flee their hideouts once they detect the presence of security forces, particularly when they come under aerial surveillance or detect drones, leaving their captives 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 therefore focuses on denying terrorists the supplies they need 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.
The minister said terrorists depend on supplies secretly brought to their hideouts by individuals who provide them with fuel, water and food.
“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 added.
Ransom payments can help track terrorists
Musa also said ransom payments, although illegal and undesirable, could sometimes provide security agencies with useful leads for tracing the financial networks supporting terrorist activities.
He said the Central Bank of Nigeria was working with relevant agencies to track suspicious financial transactions and identify the sources and destinations of funds 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,” he said.
Musa warns governors over motorcycles
The defence minister also appealed to state governors to reconsider the distribution of motorcycles as palliatives and empowerment items, warning that some of the motorcycles could eventually be diverted to terrorists and bandits.
According to him, motorcycles provide armed groups with the mobility to access remote communities, carry out attacks and quickly escape security forces.
“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,” Musa said.
He urged governments that must distribute motorcycles as part of empowerment programmes to consider smaller-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.
Musa further alleged that motorcycles distributed through constituency projects and government palliative programmes could find their way into the hands of bandits.
He stressed the need for governments to strengthen monitoring of items distributed under empowerment and relief programmes to ensure they do not end up being diverted to criminal groups.