The Nigerian government said securing the lives and property of all its citizens is paramount and it will continue to do that.
Minister of Defence, retired Major General Bashir Magashi made the declaration while speaking to State House Correspondents after Tuesday’s meeting of security chiefs with President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said the current security challenges troubling some parts of the country are a source of concern and everything would be done to address the problem.
“This meeting was called in order to get the Commander in Chief abreast with what is happening in the North-West and North-Central in respect of the improvement in problems and any other thing associated with insurgency, kidnapping, banditry and the rest.
“The meeting agreed that the spate in which these things are happening in Zamfara State is a source of concern to the government and all agencies that are responsible for the execution of the operations in the North-Central.
“We discussed the need for urgency in our dealing with the bandits. We believe they are becoming a nuisance and doing what they like; killing people, making careless statements, all in order to solicit the kind of audience they need from the society.
“We believe that we have gone a long way in keeping this country together because there’s a lot of improvement form the way the country was before this administration came into office but some people are not appreciating the effort of government,” he said.
The Minister said the military and all security agencies are capable of containing the situation and they will ensure all forms of criminality are brought to an end.
“We have appraised our position, we’ve found out that we are capable, we can do this thing but we need the cooperation of every Nigerian in order to ensure a free society.
“Security, as far as this country is concerned, is the paramount important thing in this country, without security, nothing will happen and the Commander in Chief has emphasized this today that without security, nothing can go.
“So, he has directed us to find ways, tactics and style with which we can get out of this and we assured him that we’ll do our best to ensure the mission is successful and we’ll do all we can to ensure the completion of this mission, especially when equipment and other things are available to support the course of our tactical maneuvers and that we’ll do very well from now,” the Minister explained.
Inspector General of Police, Alkali Baba said the President directed all security agencies to ensure that they bolster their effort towards finding lasting solution to all security challenges.
He said, “Yes, we had a brief security meeting, Service Chiefs and the intelligence chiefs have been able to brief the President on the security situation of the country. The President has also observed and made a remark that the constitutional responsibility of government is the provision of security, is one and is foremost and he is ready to provide such, we should reinvigorate our efforts, which are yielding results in the North-East, South-East, but there is more to be done in the North-Central, North-West, where people are worried and he has intelligence and information that schoolchildren and students are abducted, selective abductions and killings are done. This narrative must change.”
The Police Boss said his men, in collaboration with other security agencies will not relent in their effort to address the problem.
“We have assured him and promised him that we’ll make efforts to do more. He’s also thanked and praised us for what has been done so far, that we should improve much so that people can go about their lawful businesses within the quickest possible means.
He said that the new marching order is that all the service chiefs and intelligence chiefs have been warned to go and reinvigorate efforts and to do more so that the North central and Nigeria at large should enjoy better security.
Dominica Nwabufo
