President
Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, at the Presidential Villa, had a closed-door
meeting with service chiefs.
The
President proceeded to Daura, Kastina State, for Eid-el-Kabir celebration
shortly afterwards.
Speaking
with State House correspondents after the meeting, the Chief of Defence Staff
(CDS), Maj. Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin, said the essence of the meeting was to
review the security situation in the country.
He said that
the meeting focused mainly on the situation in Benue, Zamfara and Taraba
States.
“We just had
two and half hour meeting with the President and Commander in Chief, we
reviewed the security situation across the country in all the geopolitical zones”,
NAN quoted him as saying.
“We made all
our comments; especially the new operations in Benue, Zamfara, Taraba,
Operation Whirlstroke and Operation Saradaji.
“We gave the
extent of successes in these operations and we are to continue in this line of
action in these operations.
“All the
operations were reviewed and all the issues concerning the operations were
dealt with.
“He directed
that we should continue to step up our game to ensure that the nation is safe
and people go about their daily activities in a very safe manner,’’ he said.
On his part,
the Minister of Defence, Dan Ali Monsur, said the meeting was a normal routine
security briefing with the president.
He said it
was an update on what transpired when the President was away.
“We have
seen that there is a lot of improvement in the security situation in the
country, especially in Zamfara and Benue States and in the Niger Delta.
“In the
North-East, we are having a worrisome report; we have looked into it critically
and we have taken an absolute decision,’’ he said.
Other
service chiefs in attendance were Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Theophilus
Buratai, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ebok Ibas and Chief of Air Staff,
Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar.
Also in
attendance were the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, the National
Security Adviser, Rtd. Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, Acting Director General,
Department of State Service (DSS), Matthew Seiyefa, Director General, National
Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Abubakar and the Secretary to the Government
of the Federation, Boss Mustapha.
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