• There’ll be visible signs of improved security in 2022 – Army Chief
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday ordered National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno, Police Inspector General Usman Alkali Baba, and Department of State Services (DSS) DG, Yusuf Magaji Bichi to proceed to Sokoto and Katsina states to conduct an impact assessment of the security challenges in the axis.
Also on the team were National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Director-General Ahmed Rufa’i Abubakar and Chief of Defence Intelligence, Major General Samuel Adebayo.
Their dispatch came 24 hours after the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) called for urgent government intervention in the increasing wave of insecurity in the North.
Government’s mere condemnation of killings of innocent people by terrorists, according to the two, was not having any effect.
Gunmen had, on Thursday, killed 16 persons in a mosque in Niger State while another gang murdered 23 travellers in Sokoto State.
Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said yesterday that his principal was expecting an immediate situation report and recommendations on actions to follow to effectively deal with the worrying situation. Leading the team is NSA Monguno.
There’ll be visible signs of improved security in 2022 – Army Chief
Elsewhere yesterday, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya promised visible signs of improved security in the new year while the Chief of Air Staff,Air Marshall Oladayo Amao, said all the branches of the military were working in synergy to strategically defeat threats to national security.
Yahaya ,in a speech at the closing of the COAS Annual Conference 2021 in Abuja with the theme “Building Nigerian Army Capacity in Combating Emerging Security Threats in a Joint Operations Environment” warned those fueling crises in various locations across the country to desist from their unpatriotic acts.
The COAS said that the Nigerian army was committed to ensuring the return of peace to every part of the country in no distant time.
He added that the army would, within the ambit of the rule of law, continue to ensure that all peace-loving citizens go about their legitimate businesses and live without fear or intimidation.
Military working in synergy to eliminate threats to national security — Air Chief
Also yesterday, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Oladayo Amao, said all branches of the Nigerian military are working in synergy to strategically defeat threats to national security.
Amao in a message to the graduation of Junior Course 92 of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Jaji, Kaduna State,said the training of the course participants was part of the military’s plan of having tactically grounded professionals to prosecute ongoing operations.
Represented by the Chief of Policy and Plans, Nigerian Air Force Headquarters, Air Vice Marshal Remigius Ekeh,Amao said the Federal Government was working assiduously to ensure the security and safety of life and property of its citizenry within the framework of the contemporary security challenges confronting the country.
Northern youths yesterday took to the streets in Abuja, Kano, Bauchi, Zamfara and Sokoto, among other northern cities, protesting the worsening insecurity in the region.
The protesters deplored the regime of killing, kidnapping and rustling which have made life terrible for residents.
The placard carrying youths sang solidarity songs.
The protesters in Kano submitted a letter containing their grievances to officials at the Kano State Government House who promised to “pass their grievances to the appropriate quarters.”
The Abuja protesters gathered at the Unity Fountain and complained about the rate at which blood is being shed in the region.
Hashtags used by the them included : #SaveTheNorth; #NorthernLivesMatter; #NorthIsBleeding; #SecureOurLives; #EnoughIsEniugh; and #NoMoreBloodShed.
Besides,the President, Northern Youth Council of Nigeria, Isah Abubakar,said in a statement that the federal government has run out of ideas and should quit.
It said it was embarrassed that government could not “ subdue the terrorists that have taken over significant parts of Sokoto, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Zamfara states and the busiest Kaduna-Abuja expressway on one side, and recently, the daring moves attacks by Boko Haram/ISWAP which has continued unabated.
“It is embarrassing that President Buhari is idly watching the terrorist elements reigning supreme in in our Country, imposing taxes on his supposed citizens, stopping them yet, he is unperturbed. This is the clear characteristic of a leader that has run out of steam.”
President General of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) and Sultan of Sokoto,Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar ,speaking at the 4th Quarter 2021 Meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) in Abuja on Thursday, had lamented the agony which residents of the North are currently going through on account of terrorism.
His words: ““If I continue talking about the insecurity in the North, we will not leave this room, some few days ago, we are witnesses to the media report on how people were killed in a bus in Sokoto, even though the figure is not correct, but even one life is important, there is no single day that passes without people being killed in the North especially in the North West now, but we don’t hear it.
“Let’s not deceive ourselves, everything is not alright, I have said this so many times, and to know that you have a problem, you have part of the solution. The earlier we rise up to the occasion, come together, the better for us.”
In his own presentation, CAN President, the Reverend Samson Ayokunle said: “Travelling from one point to another by road in particular has become a very great risk; kidnappers are everywhere and they don’t only come out to kidnap but also to kill, so you don’t know who the next victim is going to be.
“Why should these people be killing and hiding people in our territory without being challenged, why should it be easy for them to hide people somewhere within the state and the security agencies in the state within a few days or weeks will not be able to fish them out?”
