A former Assistant Director with the Department of State Services, Mr. Dennis Amachree, has said that the military cannot engage bandits in a gun battle to avoid collateral damage.
He said this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday.

According to him, the bandits may use the students, teachers and others arrested as a human shield if attacked.

Amachree said, “When you see bandits like that if their number is large, you will decide whether you want to get reinforcement to move in there. Then secondly, sometimes they have hostages with them and the hostages then become human shields for them.

“So, if you go in there, there will be a lot of collateral damage. So, these are the considerations. I am not currently in the theatre of what is happening there. So, I don’t know what the commanders of that area are doing but I can tell you they are not just sitting down.”

Bandits had abducted staff members and students of the Science College, Kagara, in Niger State.

The gunmen had in the early hours of Wednesday attacked the college, leaving a student reportedly killed while several others, as well as teachers, were abducted.