Tinubu meets security chiefs

When President Bola Tinubu, in what was tagged, “General Security Appraisal Committee”, met with security Chiefs at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday. He, as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, asked them to urgently submit their roadmap in tackling terrorism, insurgency, banditry, oil theft, sea robbery and piracy among others. These are vices that have impeded the match of Nigeria to greater development.

Tinubu, at that meeting revealed his own security template, saying that he would not allow insecurity challenges “to bring Nigeria to its knees while other countries are advancing.”

Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd), the National Security Adviser (NSA), addressed newsmen after the meeting. Monguno saidTo this end, he said the President mandated security agencies in the country to work together towards achieving set objectives, adding that “working at cross purposes and colliding with each other, is not something that the new administration will condone.”

Monguno told journalists further that Tinubu “directed security agencies to comply with the demands of coordination, imbibe frequent consultation and timely reports, which must be acted on.”

“He is going to embark on a lot of reforms in terms of our security architecture, he will take a closer look at our misfortunes in the maritime domain focusing particularly on the issues of oil theft, which he is not going to tolerate. Wherever the problem is coming from, it must be crushed as soon as possible.

“He has already mandated the security agencies to come up with a blueprint. As far as he knows, he doesn’t have the luxury of time and whatever changes will be made, have to be done as soon as possible.

“The president also has decided that whatever ventures the armed forces are going to engage in, they must carry along those operatives in the theatre, they must be well fed, well catered for, motivated and given all that they require. The president has said he will do whatever that is within his powers to enable them.”

The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, also revealed that the security chiefs received new instructions on “how the President wants security to be pursued, assuring that the team was already inspired to carry out the new tasks.”

Those who participated were Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Farouk Yahaya; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Amao, and the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba.

Director-General of the Department of State Service (DSS), Yusuf Bichi; and Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufai Abubakar were also there.