ONSA Dismisses El-Rufai’s Claims of Paying Bandits

The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) has rejected claims by former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, alleging that the government pays and incentivises bandits.

In a television interview on Sunday, El-Rufai alleged that the ONSA coordinates “a policy of payments and offers of incentives” to criminals. However, in a statement on Monday, signed by Zakari Mijinyawa, ONSA described the claim as “baseless, false, and contradictory to verifiable facts.”

The office maintained that the federal government has never paid ransom or offered inducements to criminals, insisting that its approach to insecurity has been a dual strategy: decisive military operations alongside community engagement to address local grievances.

According to the statement, this approach has restored relative calm in troubled parts of Kaduna such as Igabi, Birnin Gwari, and Giwa. It added that several notorious bandit leaders, including Boderi, Baleri, Sani Yellow Janburos, Buhari, and Boka, have been killed, while Ansaru commanders previously operating in the state have been captured.

“These successes came at a heavy cost, with some security personnel paying the supreme price,” the statement read. “For a former governor to deny these sacrifices is unfair and insulting to the memories of fallen officers.”

ONSA further urged El-Rufai and other political actors to refrain from dragging national security institutions into partisan disputes, stressing that the fight against banditry requires unity rather than political point-scoring.