Senator Anietie Okon, spokesperson for the Akwa Ibom Elders Vanguard, has said the shoot-at-sight order by President Mohammadu Buhari  to security agencies is not enough, adding that the government is handling bandits with kid gloves.

Senator Okon, a former Publicity and Organising Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, added that what was expected from the government should be an order to wipe out banditry from the country.

Okon said these while addressing journalists on Sunday in Uyo the Akwa-Ibom State capital.

He disclosed that the way the Buhari-led administration was handling bandits and insurgents in some parts of the north is unsatisfactory.

He stated that “The Federal Government declared war in Igbo land; why can’t the Federal Government deploy same military aircraft and might to crush the insurgents and bandits kidnapping women and children daily in Zamfara, Kaduna and other parts of the north for huge ransoms?

“This shows that the Buhari-led administration is treating the bandits with kid gloves. Buhari’s shoot-at-sight order is not enough. What is needed from the President is full permission to wipe out banditry and other forms of criminality from the county.

“I have since stopped recognizing the present government as a government. It has further divided the country by jettisoning federal character considerations and competence in areas of appointment for parochial tribal and clannish considerations. This has further cracked the fragile unity we have achieved earlier in the country; we must work collectively to bring the country back from the brink of disaster.”