President Muhammadu Buhari has  given a marching order to service chiefs to take down elements causing the spate of insecurity across the country including their sponsors.

Mr Buhari’s tough talk comes as he prepares for a ‘routine’ medical trip to London, leaving the home front on the charges of his lieutenants. He had endured a year without stepping his foot outside the shores of Nigeria, a rarity ensured by a COVID-enforced global lockdown.

At a pre-travel meeting with heads of the nation’s security agencies Tuesday morning, the president assured the service chiefs of his resolve to make available the required resources to tackle the menace of banditry, kidnapping as well as take down the collaborators.

National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno, who briefed the State House correspondents after the meeting disclosed that President Buhari made the pledge to end the challenges once and for all.

Mr Monguno quoted the president as saying that he “indicated his willingness to provide all the resources required by our own troops in order to put down these criminals.”

“They [bandits] must be brought down with all the ruthlessness that is required and whoever is working in collaboration with them will be brought to book,” he also stated.

The intelligence chief further disclosed that the president, at the meeting, decried the unending spate of kidnapping and banditry, especially in the North-West and North-Central. 

The NSA said: “Mr president has been very emphatic, he has stated very clearly that this problem must be brought to an end, but using the traditional methods that the armed forces have been trained to deploy.”

Mr Monguno also emphasised the president’s order to go after key arrowheads causing insecurity in the regions.

“Mr president has made it very clear to both the intelligence and operational elements that the first assignment will be to identify the leaders of these bandits, kidnappers and take them out, in order to restore confidence in those areas,” he said.

“Mr president has said that he will no longer tolerate a situation whereby bandits and kidnappers are the ones dictating the pace and setting the tone and he will not also condone a situation in which our own operations are reactionary rather than being proactive,” he further warned.

He further disclosed that the president maintained that the decision in February at the meeting of the National Security Council to ban mining activities and the no-fly order in Zamfara state, should still remain in enforcement to address the rising insecurity in the state.