National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) has described President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s formal classification of bandits, armed non-state actors, and other criminal gangs as terrorists as a significant and transformative shift in Nigeria’s national security policy.

The centre also described the classification as a deliberate policy and legal re-categorisation by the President of a sovereign nation, with significant implications.

National Coordinator of the Centre, Maj.-General Adamu Laka, said the move by the President would pave the way for a strategic and more unified and forceful response to the multifaceted violent crisis plundering the country.

Laka spoke yesterday at an end-of-year interactive session with the media themed: “Strengthening trust, accuracy and partnership in counter terrorism reporting.”

He said both international and Nigerian laws defined terrorism as “acts of serious violence or threats thereof committed with a political, ideological, religious, or ethnic motivation to intimidate a population.