Buhari orders military clampdown on troubled Zamfara communities

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday ordered a military crackdown on bandits operating in rural communities in Zamfara State.

The presidential order followed fresh attacks on some communities in Shinkafi and Maradun Local Government Areas.


The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said this in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja.

To enable the army carry out this new mandate, Shehu said the President has approved the request of the Minister of Defence, Brig.-Gen. Mansur Dan Ali (retd.), for the stationing of a full battalion of Special Forces in Zamfara State, and the operationalisation of the newly-established 8 Division of the Nigerian Army in Sokoto in the new Order of Battle.

The presidential spokesman said the President has also approved the movement of the 1 Brigade of the Nigerian Army from Sokoto to Gusau upon the take-off of the 8 Division.

The statement read in part, “To tackle the desperate actions of Boko Haram terrorists in the North-east, through the use of mostly female, underage girls as suicide bombers, President Buhari has equally approved the setting up of an intelligence fusion centre in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, for the purpose of gathering and sharing intelligence among the security agencies in the country.

“This phase of the war will be intelligence-driven and the new centre is expected to intensify the harvesting and sharing of intelligence so as to bring to an early closure, the desperate last-minute activities of the terrorists.”