Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has stated the reasons security operatives cannot attack bandits who are terrorising Northern Nigeria.

Speaking in an interview on ‘Prime Time’, a programme on Arise Television on Monday, Onanuga said security personnel know where all the bandits operate in that axis.

He said the personnel cannot arrest them before an attack due to the risk of collateral damage because the bandits live among civilians.

His comment comes in the wake of the recent wave of bandits’ attacks on innocent Nigerians.

UGAMATV reports that 38 worshippers in the Christ Apostolic Church in Kwara State were kidnapped, and some were killed during the incident. However, President Bola Tinubu announced the rescue of all the 38 victims on Sunday.

Similarly, over 200 schoolchildren were whisked away by bandits from a Catholic private school in a Nigerian state, but 50 of them reportedly escaped and were reunited with their families.

Reacting, Onanuga said “The security personnel must act carefully to avoid harming citizens.

“Something happened in Borno last time when the military thought they had the location of the terrorists only to bomb the wrong people.
“They need to be very careful so that in the course of looking for these bandits, they don’t go and bomb innocent Nigerians.”