Buhari orders clampdown on bandits, kidnappers, others
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday gave a marching order to security operatives to deal ruthlessly with bandits terrorising Zamfara State and its environs. He equally sanctioned same measure for kidnappers and others engaged in acts compromising security nationwide.
The president gave the directive during a two-hour closed down meeting with the nation’s service chiefs and heads of other security agencies at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the parley, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Gabriel Olonisakin, stated that the gathering reviewed and revised strategy to effectively address the challenges confronting the country.
His words: “The security meeting we just had with Mr. President today (yesterday) is to review the strategy that we are adopting in confronting security issues in Zamfara State especially and other places nationwide.
“And this reviewed strategy is to address all the issues, including kidnapping, banditry and other associated issues confronting the nation. And we are coming out with a revised strategy to handle those challenges.”
Also speaking, the Acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, revealed that the Abuja/Kaduna highway had been cleared for safety of motorists.
He had had a confrontation with bandits and kidnappers on this same road where some of them were fatally injured and others arrested.
Similarly, Governor Kashim Shettima and some members of the National Assembly from Borno State on Wednesday met separately with service chiefs over insecurity and relocation of residents from three communities to the Bakassi Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Maiduguri.
The Abuja meeting with the Minister of Defence, Brig.-Gen. Mansur Dan Ali (rtd), Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai, and Director-General of
Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Bichi, were at the instance of the governor over the relocation of 10,000 residents from Jakana, Mainok and Auno.
According to the military authorities, the operations are being conducted in the northern flank of Sambisa Forest along Maiduguri-Damaturu axis.
In a statement yesterday in Maiduguri, the governor’s spokesman, Mallam Isa Gusau, said the meetings discussed insecurity and the movement of the residents.
But the spokesman of Operation Lafiya Dole, Col. Ado Isa, insisted that the exercise was for operational purpose in the ongoing fight against Boko Haram insurgency in the North East.
Shettima was accompanied by chairmen of Senate and House of Representatives committees on defence, Abubakar Kyari and Betara Aliyu.
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