Senior Special Assistant to the president of Nigeria, Garba Shehu has directed security agencies to “shoot anyone seen with an Ak47 assault rifle”. This is as a result of the rising insecurities and banditry in Zamfara, and the North in general.

Garba Shehu, who made this known in an interview with the BBC, said the president has ordered a total clampdown on bandits who have refused to repent.

“The president has ordered security forces to go into the bushes and shoot whoever they see with sophisticated weapons like AK-47,” he said in the interview.

“He ordered that whoever is seen with terrible weapons at all should be shot immediately.”

Shehu also said the Federal government declared Zamfara a “no-fly zone” following intelligence that arms are being transported to the bandits with private jets.

He said the jets are also used to cart away gold from the State to Dubai, which, according to him, prompted the ban on mining activities also announced on Tuesday.

“These jets are being used to pick up gold that is being mined in some parts of Zamfara and exported. This is strong because at the moment,” he said.

“There is a Nigerian gold market in Dubai. The government is losing, the people of this country are losing, that’s why it is said that gold mining is banned for those who are not made by the government.”

The ban on mining activities in Zamfara was first pronounced nin April 2017 amid reports that people going after the State’s gold reserves are fuelling its security crisis.

However, North East governors, yesterday, called on federal government to be more active and committed to the fight against banditry and terrorism in the country, saying the current situation suggests that the commitment was not there.

Ifesinachi Nnabugwu reporting, Obinwannem News