Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Obadiah Mailafia, has linked the sponsorship of bandits terrorising the country to persons who ousted former President Goodluck Jonathan from office.
Mailafia reportedly told the The Punch on Thursday that some foreign powers were also behind banditry in the country.
“During the 2015 elections they brought in thousands of foreigners into this country, armed them because it was a case of if Goodluck Jonathan doesn’t surrender, there will be war. They were ready for civil war; they were not ready for peace.
“Of course, Jonathan handed over to them and then they turned their backs on the hoodlums and the hoodlums said ‘look, you brought us here and we are still here.
“There are certain world powers that want to destroy our country. That is what I believe. There was a container load of weapons that were brought in from Turkey.
“Another time some were brought in from Iran. But nobody probed further and everything was swept under the carpet and that was the end of it,” he explained.
While disagreeing with the approach of the Kaduna-based Islamic Cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, on pushing for amnesty for bandits, he said the bandits have no agenda other than to destroy.
He argued that appeasing the bandits would never work, adding that the Niger Delta militancy and the banditry ravaging the country are two different things.
“I do not believe that the Niger Delta militancy can be compared to the terrorists. These people (terrorists) are not even bandits.
“A bandit is a common thief or a brigand. The ‘agbero’ are bandits. These people carrying sophisticated weapons and rockets are not bandits. They are terrorists.
“They have killed, they have maimed, they have raped and they have wreaked havoc,” Mailafia added.
Heritatge Times had reported Mailafia’s battle with the Department State Security, DSS, after accusing a serving Northern governor of being a top commander of the Boko Haram insurgents.
