The President, Muhammadu Buhari, on
Tuesday, met behind closed doors with the nation’s 36 state governors on the
security challenges across the country.
He explained that the closure of the nation’s land borders
was partly an attempt to control the smuggling of weapons and drugs.
Although state governors did not speak with State House
correspondents at the end of the meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja,
the Presidency issued a statement quoting Buhari as asking the state governors
to work more with traditional rulers and community members to improve local
intelligence gathering that will aid the work of security agencies.
The statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, was titled “President Buhari
charges governors to work with traditional rulers for local intelligence.”
“Now that the message has sunk in with our neighbours, we
are looking into reopening the borders as soon as possible,” the President
said.
Shehu said the President, who listened to presentations by a
governor from each of the six geo-political zones on their specific security
challenges, recalled that in the old order, communities identified newcomers
and passed information to constituted authority.
“The sub-region is no longer safe, more so with the collapse
of the former Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi’s regime and the cross border
movement of weapons and criminals.
“Governors must work with traditional rulers. Try and work
with traditional rulers to boost intelligence gathering,” Shehu quoted the
President as saying.
He also said while giving an overview of the security
situation in each of the zones, the President said his administration had done
well in the North East and South-South, adding that the South-South situation
was still worrisome.
“Every day I get situation reports about illegal refineries
and the blowing up of pipelines. You must stop local rogues from sabotaging oil
installations,” the President reportedly told.the governors.
While addressing the issues of banditry and kidnapping
reported in each of the geo-political zones, Buhari said “security is important
and we must secure the whole country. We are thinking very hard on the issue of
kidnapping. We will make it possible for the military to get to the bandits and
kidnappers and eliminate them.’’
Buhari also assured the governors that the country’s
military will continue to get the support they needed to fight criminals.
“I am not going to the public to speak about the vehicles and
equipment we have ordered. What I can say is that the military received
armoured cars and other equipment and they are training the trainers. More of
such equipment, including military aircraft will come in,” he said.
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