Judge of Nigeria’s federal high court sitting in the federal capital territory, Abuja, Nigeria, Justice Taiwo Taiwo, has in a ruling on Friday, declared the activities of the “Yan Bindiga Group” and the “Yan Ta’adda Group” and other similar groups in any part of the country, especially in the North-West and North-Central geopolitical zones, as “acts of terrorism and illegality.”
“The terrorism activities include, but not limited to banditry, kidnappings for ransom, kidnapping for marriage, mass abductions of school children and other citizens, cattle rustling, enslavement, imprisonment, severe deprivation of physical liberty, torture, rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, other forms of sexual violence, attacks and killings in communities and commuters and wanton destruction of lives and properties in Nigeria,” he said.
Justice Taiwo gave the ruling after counsel from the Federal Ministry of Justice, Aminu Kayode Alilu, argued the motion ex-parte filed by the Nigerian Government to that effect.
The court’s declaration may have ended the Buhari regime’s reluctance to declare the extremist groups as terrorists despite mounting pressure from political players, opinion leaders and Nigerians.
A controversial Islamic scholar, ex-soldier and medical doctor, Mr. Ahmad Gumi, had earlier warned President Buhari and the federal government not to declare the bandits who were killing and abducting people in the North as terrorists.
The Sunni scholar had said declaring them as terrorists would come with a big price.