Security, judicial efforts fail without executive action, group warns.
—Direct link established between political hesitation and rising banditry.
A prominent security advocacy coalition, United Against Terror (UAT), has urged state governors across the country to immediately sign the death warrants of condemned terrorists and bandits currently languishing in various correctional facilities.
The group warned that the persistent reluctance of state executives to authorize these executions is undermining the successes of the military and the judiciary, directly contributing to the escalation of insecurity in the country.
In a press statement issued on on Monday and signed by Comrade Usman Okai Austin the coalition argued that the entire counter-terrorism architecture is being bottlenecked at the executive level.
According to United Against Terror, the gallantry of security forces on the frontlines and the diligence of the judiciary in prosecuting criminals are being rendered futile by executive inaction.
“The military risks the lives of its officers to arrest these terrorists, and the courts spend years and massive public resources to convict them. However, the entire chain of justice is broken at the point of execution due to political hesitation,” the statement read.
“We cannot win the war against terror when convicted killers are kept in custody indefinitely, waiting for prison breaks or political pardons.” Okai
The group stressed that keeping high-profile terrorists alive in correctional facilities poses a double threat: it makes prisons prime targets for jailbreaks and sends a message of weakness to active insurgent groups.
UAT pointed to a direct correlation between the rise in banditry and the lack of ultimate punishment for convicted criminals. The group argued that the fear of the death penalty, which should serve as the ultimate deterrent, has been neutralized by the knowledge that governors rarely sign death warrants.
“Bandits and terrorists now operate with a sense of impunity because they know that even if they are caught and sentenced to death, they will likely live out their days in custody or escape during a raid. Political hesitation has stripped our laws of their deterrent power,” the coalition stated.
The group concluded by calling on the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) to coordinate a unified stance on the matter.
“National security must take precedence over political correctness. If our governors continue to stall on signing these warrants, they must be prepared to bear the moral and political responsibility for the persistent loss of innocent lives to banditry and terrorism.”
