{"id":121790,"date":"2025-09-01T16:44:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T15:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=121790"},"modified":"2025-09-01T16:44:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T15:44:03","slug":"claims-of-government-paying-bandits-baseless-onsa-slams-el-rufai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/claims-of-government-paying-bandits-baseless-onsa-slams-el-rufai\/","title":{"rendered":"Claims of Government Paying Bandits Baseless, ONSA Slams El-Rufai\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Oscar Okhifo<\/div>\n
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The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) has described as baseless the allegation by former Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, that the federal government pays or offers incentives to bandits.<\/div>\n
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In a statement issued on Monday by Zakari Mijinyawa, ONSA said El-Rufai\u2019s claim, made during a television interview on Sunday, was false and contradicted verifiable facts on ground.<\/div>\n
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\u201cAt no time has the ONSA, or any arm of government under this administration, engaged in ransom payments or inducements to criminals,\u201d the statement said, stressing that the federal government has consistently warned Nigerians against paying ransom.<\/div>\n
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The NSA\u2019s office noted that since the inception of the present administration, a dual strategy of \u201cdecisive kinetic operations alongside community engagements\u201d had been deployed, leading to significant improvement in security across several areas of Kaduna State once plagued by banditry.<\/div>\n
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The statement highlighted the military\u2019s successes in neutralising or capturing notorious bandit leaders, including Boderi, Baleri, Sani Yellow Janburos, Buhari and Boka, while also dismantling Ansaru bases in the state.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThese successes came at a cost, as some of our brave officers paid the supreme price. For a former governor of a state in person of El-Rufai to deny these sacrifices on national television is both unfair and deeply insulting to the memories of our security personnel,\u201d ONSA said.<\/div>\n
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The NSA\u2019s office urged El-Rufai and other political actors to refrain from dragging national security institutions into partisan politics, noting that the fight against banditry is \u201ca collective struggle, not a platform for political point-scoring.\u201d he said.<\/div>\n
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