Former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has accused the Nigerian government of secretly paying bandits in a bid to reduce killings, a policy he described as dangerous and counterproductive.
Speaking on Sunday, August 31, during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, El-Rufai said the strategy was being championed by the Office of the National Security Adviser and had been extended to several states, including Kaduna.
“What I will not do is to pay bandits. They are paying bandits. They are empowering bandits. This is what this government has done. We have the evidence,” he alleged.
The former governor, who served from 2015 to 2023, dismissed negotiations as futile, insisting that armed groups should be decisively confronted.
“My position has always been that the only repentant bandit is a dead one. Let’s kill them all. Let’s wipe them.
“Let’s bomb them until they are reduced to nothing. And then the 5% that still want to be rehabilitated can be rehabilitated,” he declared.
El-Rufai argued that the so-called non-kinetic approach only strengthens criminal gangs by giving them resources to expand their operations.
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“You do not negotiate from a position of weakness. You don’t empower your enemy. You don’t give him money to go on and buy more sophisticated weapons. That’s why the security problem has not gone away,” he said.
Citing reports by SBM Intelligence and Sahara Reporters, the APC chieftain claimed insecurity had worsened under the present administration in states like Kaduna and Zamfara.
He also alleged that the government was “buying the media” to suppress critical coverage of its failings.
Defending his own record in Kaduna, El-Rufai said his administration established a Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs, working closely with security agencies, but never engaged in paying criminal groups.
He maintained that his criticism was not personal but rooted in principle.
“Even if it is my son or my father who is president or governor and he’s not doing the right thing, I lose the right to disagree or criticise? Is that negative? Is that what Nigeria is?” he asked.
El-Rufai concluded that the government had failed Nigerians in security, governance, and economic management, warning that its current approach to banditry would only worsen the crisis.