By Abdullahi M. Gulloma
Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday had a closed-door meeting with the National Security Adviser (NSA), the Service Chiefs and other heads of the security agencies in the country.
The meeting, held at the Defence House in Abuja, was the first since the President was sworn-in on May 29, 2015.
Buhari is yet to relocate to the Presidential Villa, housing his official residence and office.
The meeting was attended by the National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd), Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh; Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosun, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin, and the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase.
Briefing journalists at the end of the meeting, the Chief of Naval Staff said the security chiefs briefed the president on the current security situation.
He said: “Since he was inaugurated as our Commander-in-Chief this is the first time that we are formally meeting him to give general security briefing of the country, and that went very well. We have been able to provide insights into the security situation of Nigeria.”
On the ongoing fight against Boko Haram following renewed attacks by the insurgents, the Chief of Naval Staff assured that the military would maintain the tempo against Boko Haram insurgents until they were completely routed out.
He said: “The Boko Haram issue, like I told you, we have just given general briefing with respect to general security situation. Specifically on Boko Haram, with the level of successes being recorded, we want to maintain the tempo, and sustain until they are routed out.
“We are sustaining the tempo and the successes we have recoded so far, we want to continue to maintain that and if there is any suggested solution that requires amendments or alteration of what we’re doing, why not? Most especially the more they give us the intelligence, the better.”
Asked when the command centre would be relocating to Maiduguri as directed by the President, Jibrin said: “We are the ones to go back and work on it. Soon it will be carried out. It is a presidential directive, it must be carried out, and we must do that as quickly as possible.
“All Nigerians should continue to support the military and provide us with the needed intelligence, as to the human beings, their movements and suspicious movement should be reported to the police. Of course, the police will make that available to us.
“You know, as we continue to put pressure on them, in the Sambisa area, they will try to run away from there and then create further problems, using improvised explosive devices.”
It would be recalled that the President had, in his inaugural speech, stressed the need for the military command and control centre to be relocated to Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, in order to achieve efficiency and maximum results in the fight against Boko Haram insurgents.
He said: “The most immediate is Boko Haram’s insurgency. Progress has been made in recent weeks by our security forces but victory cannot be achieved by basing the Command and Control Centre in Abuja. The command centre will be relocated to Maiduguri and remain until Boko Haram is completely subdued. But we cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents.”
He added: “This government will do all it can to rescue them alive. Boko Haram is a typical example of small fires causing large fires. An eccentric and unorthodox preacher with a tiny following was given posthumous fame and following by his extra judicial murder at the hands of the police. Since then through official bungling, negligence, complacency or collusion Boko Haram became a terrifying force taking tens of thousands of lives and capturing several towns and villages covering swathes of Nigerian sovereign territory.
“Boko Haram is a mindless, godless group who are as far away from Islam as one can think of. At the end of the hostilities when the group is subdued the government intends to commission a sociological study to determine its origins, remote and immediate causes of the movement, its sponsors, the international connexions to ensure that measures are taken to prevent a reoccurrence of this evil. For now the Armed Forces will be fully charged with prosecuting the fight against Boko Haram. We shall overhaul the rules of engagement to avoid human rights violations in operations. We shall improve operational and legal mechanisms so that disciplinary steps are taken against proven human right violations by the Armed Forces.
“Boko Haram is not only the security issue bedevilling our country. The spate of kidnappings, armed robberies, herdsmen/farmers clashes, cattle rustlings all help to add to the general air of insecurity in our land. We are going to erect and maintain an efficient, disciplined people, friendly and well-compensated security forces within
an over-all security architecture.”
