President Muhammadu Buhari has issued a fresh marching order to the nation’s security chiefs to deal ruthlessly with the bandits and kidnappers operating in Zamfara state and its environs as well as to tackle other security challenges in other parts of the country.
The order followed a meeting with the president and the heads of security outfits at the presidential villa, Abuja on Thursday.
Briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of the meeting, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin, said that the session reviewed and revised the strategy adopted by the security so as to address the challenges confronting the country.
He said: “The security meeting we just had with Mr President today (Thursday) is to review the strategy that we are adopting in confronting security issues in Zamfara State especially and other places nationwide.
“And this review 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.”
Asked whether there was a marching order from the President to the security agencies over the increasing rate of insecurity in the country, General Olonisakin said, “Yeah, the marching order is for us to deal with this issue immediately and ruthlessly and ensure that all those bandits are immediately dealt with and all those issues that are bordering with our security are properly addressed.”
Also speaking, the Acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu said that the Abuja-Kaduna road has cleared of bandits and now safe for motorists.
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He revealed that many of the bandits had been left wounded while others were arrested during the operation led by the security forces to get rid of them.
The IGP assured: “I want to assure Nigerians that Kaduna/Abuja roads are now safe. We have cleared the roads, we have arrested a lot of kidnappers and in a confrontation with some of them, some were fatally injured.
“So the road is cleared. Our patrol teams, the combined security services that are patrolling the road are constantly there, 24 hours.”
At Thursday’s meeting were Olonishakin, Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Yusuf Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Ibok-Ete IIbas, and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar.
Others were the National Security Adviser, Major Gen. Babagana Monguno; Director General of National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufai; the Director General, Department of Security Service (DSS), Yusuf Bichi and Acting Inspector General of Police, IGP; the Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dangazzau and the Minister of Defence, Brigadier Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali.
The IGP had last Sunday, told State House correspondents that the federal government has ordered the immediate suspension of mining activities in Zamfara state and its environs to stem the spate of insecurity in the area.