Stop Glorifying Banditry, Kidnappers, Burutai Appeals To Media Practitioners
BY AMOS TAUNA, KADUNA – The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Burutai has advised the media to stop glorifying bandits, armed robbers, kidnappers and ethnic militias in the fight against insurgency in the country.
Buratai noted that the patronage given to the insurgents is to the extent that they are seen as stronger than the military and other security agencies.
Speaking at the Chief of Army Staff First Quarter Conference and Combat Arms Training Week 2019 in Jaji on Wednesday, Buratai said the criminals and bandits are only as strong as the society paints or view them and further propagated by the media.
He said the undue publicity and praise singing of the bandits and other criminal elements would only motivate them to commit more criminal acts at the detriment of the society.
He said that information and intelligence flow from the people and indeed from the press and the public and therefore urged people to provide timely information and clear identifications of the perpetrators.
Burutai also advised that the media, the general public, security analysts and public commentators to show more maturity and due diligence in the collective effort of ridding the country of criminals and criminalities.
He explained further that the strategy the military adopted in the past to address such ugly trends in the South-east and the South-south regions must therefore be rejuvenated with new “out of the box” ideas to address the current security challenges.
According him, “The conference and the transformed citadel of military training would provide the serene environment needed for the military to brainstorm and appraise their performance in the First Quarter 2019.
“The choice of Jaji as the venue for this conference is for many reasons. Firstly, it affords officers of the Infantry Corps, who just concluded their reunion to seamlessly migrate to the COAS First Quarter Conference without having to embark on another journey.
“We will also in the course of this conference deliberate on key issues that will positively prepare and project us into the Second quarter of 2019 with a view to further consolidate on our efforts towards achieving my vision: ‘to have a professionally responsive Nigerian Army in the discharge of its constitutional responsibility,” Buratai explained.
