Routing insurgency Buhari’s greatest achievement ― Aregbesola

Routing insurgents from all territories in the country is this administration’s greatest achievement in office, Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has said.

Taking his turn at the media briefing to highlight President Muhammadu Buhari’s achievements at the event moderated by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, in Abuja on Tuesday, he affirmed that there is no territory being held by the insurgents in the country.

Asked what the biggest legacy of the administration will be, he said: “The biggest legacy will be our ability to push insurgents out of our land. There’s no insurgency stronghold anywhere in Nigeria. That’s the biggest achievement in security.

“Most people conveniently ignore that. At the advent of this administration in 2015, local governments in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa were under insurgents. But today, there is no square inch of the Nigerian soil under the control of the insurgents. It is the biggest achievement of our administration in security.

“Yes, there are still challenges here and there. Is there any nation where are no challenges? No!”

The minister revealed that the report of the investigation into the recent terrorist attack on the Kuje Correctional Centre, which led to the release of hardened Boko Haram members, has been submitted the president.

While noting that there has been investigations at various levels, he said the one done by his ministry and its agencies has been concluded but declined to give insight on the ground that it is a security matter.

He explained: “We have levels of investigations. We have concluded our own investigations in the ministry and in the services. We have sent our result, the outcome of that investigation to the president. It’s a security matter. You cannot disclose security information.”

But he added that the security agencies have recaptured “a large number” of inmates who escaped as a result of the attack on the facility, noting that officers are being trained to eliminate such threats.

Aregbesola insisted that there is a shoot-to-kill order on correctional personnel to deal with potential assailants, saying: “We are not saying shoot and wound. We are saying shoot and send whoever tries to attack our facilities back to their senders. We are not just saying it, we are training our officers to do it.”

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Aregbesola was confident that it will no longer be easy for any attackers to access the correctional facilities.

He also disclosed that no single Covid-19 case had been reported in any of the nation”s correctional centres because of the availability of good health facilities, some of which he said are referral centres.

Nigeria to produce passports locally by year-end ― Minister

The minister assured that local production of international passports will commence before the expiration of the lifetime of the present administration.

He said a total of 1.2 million passports have been issued since the beginning of this year out of 1.8 million target for the year.

Aregbesola also said that there is enough booklets to issue to those who have already applied for passports and have been captured both in Nigeria and abroad.

The minister, who highlighted the achievements of the ministry and the various parastatals under it, said promotion and recruitment into its agencies are now done online through the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

For the Federal Fire Service, he said what it received in terms of allocation from 1901 when it was set up to 2014, has been surpassed at least times by what the present administration has allocated to ot since 2015.