Former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has accused the Federal Government and National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, of running a policy that pays and feeds bandits in the north.

According to him, available evidence has shown that the Federal Government implements this policy as part of its non-kinetic strategy to tackle insecurity.

Speaking with Channels TV's Politics Today on Sunday, El-Rufai stated that the policy is in effect in Kaduna State, but other states are objecting to it.

He said, "What I will not do is to pay bandits, give them a monthly allowance or send food to them in the name of non-kinetic. It's nonsense.

"It's a national policy driven by the National Security Adviser. Kaduna is part of it. Many states are objecting to that."

According to El-Rufai, bandits are supposed to be killed and not pampered as a strategy to end insecurity in the country.

He said, "My position has always been that the only repentant bandit is a dead one; let's kill them all. Let's wipe them, let's bomb them until they are reduced to nothing. The five per cent that still want to be rehabilitated can be rehabilitated.

"You don't negotiate from a position of weakness. You don't empower your enemy, you don't give him money to go and buy more sophisticated weapons. That's why the insecurity problem has not gone away and will not go away. As long as this policy continues.

"They can conceal it, they can do propaganda, but those that live in Katsina, those that live in Zamfara, those that live in those states, they know what is happening."

ASA