Nigerian Information minister, Mr. Lai Mohammed on Thursday said the activities of Boko Haram and Bandits taxing some communities citizens across the northern parts of the country is the same as som street thugs extorting cash from citizens in the southern parts of the country.
Mr Muhammad urges citizens not to see activities of bandits and terrorists operation across the northern region as running their own enclaves outside federal jurisdictions just because they have the ability to estort financial gains through violence and intimidation.
He said “The issue is not about bandits collecting taxes, But that’s not the same as saying there is a new caliphate.”
Mr Mohammed said there are several communities across the South where armed thugs impose levies on residents without consequences.
“Do you know how many places in this country where area boys collect taxes and there is no banditry there?
“I don’t want to mention names. In many of our cities, they carve out their own territories. So what they are writing is nothing. It is not indicative that the bandits have taken over,” the minister said at a press briefing in his office on Thursday.
Whereas there are street thugs in Lagos and other southern cities, they operate largely under the shadows. But insurgents and bandit gangs in northern communities often sack security forces and introduce quasi-administrative roles to government trapped locals.
“The point is about you (Nigeria media) swallowing hook, line and sinker, a report by a foreign organisation, which you have not even interrogated yourself, that’s my problem,” the minister said.
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