- Tasks Media to categorise more carefylly considering “the sophisticated weapons used to carry out the dastardly act”
Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Army, Abdulrazak Namdas, on Friday disagreed with the Armed Forces of Nigeria that it was bandits that shot down the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Alpha Jet in Zamfara State on Sunday.
The NAF light attack aircraft was downed by anti-aircraft fire but the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Abayomi Dairo, skillfully ejected safely and had to hide from hours from the bandits as he walked up to 30 hours into safety.
Namdas, speaking at a capacity building workshop in Abuja, said the attackers of the NAF fighter jet were terrorists and not bandits as claimed.
The House Committee Chairman on the Army asked the media to always identify criminals properly, considering “the sophisticated weapons used to carry out the dastardly act.”
The lawmaker noted that the security situation in the country is deteriorating by the day, which calls for decisive action against the activities of ‘bandits.’
He, however, expressed concern that the enemies might be winning.
According to him, “we should be able to define who is actually a terrorist or cattle rustlers because those who are called bandits have moved one step forward because of the kind of weapon they use. If a bandit can go to the extent of bringing down a fighter jet, it is no longer banditry but terrorism.
“The media should help to unravel the identity of these people, this is more than banditry, and calling them the right name would help us to tackle them. If I don’t have the knowledge of who these people are, it means even in terms of resource allocation, there is no way we can allocate resources.”