Nigeria is at the mercy of terrorists. We’re being denied weapons — Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said Nigeria is currently at the mercy of terrorists because the country is being denied access to acquire needed weapons to fight the insurgents despite efforts to do so.

The minister said this during a courtesy visit to Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, on Monday, November 30.

According to him: “When people talk about terrorism, they don’t seem to appreciate the fact that terrorism is not a local issue but a global issue and there is no part of the world that is not experiencing pockets of terrorism.

We will never stop protecting lives and livelihood of the people, but you must understand that we are also dealing with terrorists who are financed globally and we also need more support from global partners.

For instance, Nigeria has made attempts to acquire better and more effective platforms to deal with terrorists and for one reason or the other we have been denied these platforms, and these weapons and without adequate weapons and adequate platforms, we will remain at the mercy of terrorists.

But you see, fighting terrorists is not a joke because what actually happened in Borno State was quite unfortunate.

But you see you must be also able to look at the strategy of the terrorists. You see, terrorists also use media and publicity as oxygen. So when they go on this kind of mindless killings of innocent people, it is just that a dying terrorist group will now suddenly again spring to life.

It does not mean that the government is not doing enough. Terrorism in Africa and any other place in the world has the same concept which is, you have a group of people who are extremists in their thoughts, who don’t believe that me and you should be alive.”