President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Thursday ordered Service Chiefs to work together in order to strengthen the fight against insecurity.

He gave the order at a meeting with Heads of all the nation’s security agencies at the Presidential Villa.

The meeting was the first by President Tinubu with the service chiefs led by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor.

Others at the meeting included the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Farouk Yahaya; the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo; and the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Amao, the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba.

Others are the Chief of Defence Intelligence, Maj Gen Adebayo; the Director-General of the Department of State Service(DSS), Yusuf Bichi; the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufai Abubakar

Addressing State House correspondents after the meeting, the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, said the President demanded frequent consultations among the agencies.

The President also mandated the security agencies to develop a blueprint to deal with the issue of crude oil theft and changed them to meet the requirements of the changing times.

Monguno said: “The President has revealed that in moving this country forward, he needs the security agencies to redouble their efforts. And he also pointed out that his own philosophy is one of the contemporary security measures dealing with the requirements of the time.

“He has made it very clear that he will not accept a situation in which our fortunes keep declining. And his own trajectory is that national security has to be coordinated.

“All agencies must work to achieve one single purpose. Working at cross purposes and colliding with each other is not something that he will condone. He has made it very, very clear that all the security agencies must comply with the demands of coordination, with the demands of frequent consultations and also timely reports which must be acted on.”

The NSA said the president told the security chiefs during the two hours meeting of his determination to build on gains made so far, reverse misfortunes and turn the tide in favour of the country.

He added that Tinubu said the country should not be on its knees struggling while other countries were walking and achieving greater heights.

He said: “Having been briefed by the participants of the meeting, Mr President addressed prevailing issues confronting the nation in terms of insecurity and also mentioned his own philosophy towards dealing with national security issues.

“First and foremost, he appreciated the armed forces and intelligence agencies and the wider paramilitary agencies for the work they have been doing in the past couple of years. Their sacrifice, their loyalty, and he also paid tribute to those who died in defending this country, from the great big menace of terrorism, insurgency, banditry, oil theft, sea robbery, piracy, etc, etc.

“He is going to embark on a lot of reforms in terms of our security architecture, he is going to take a closer look at our misfortunes in the maritime domain, focusing particularly on the issues of oil theft, which is not going to tolerate. Wherever the problem is coming from, it must be crushed as soon as possible.

“President has said clearly that he will do whatever is within his powers to enable the operational elements but the intelligence agencies must also make their work easy for them by providing the type of intelligence that they require to carry out the assignment.”

The Centre for Leadership Legacy Int’l has condemned in strong terms what it described as lackadaisical attitude of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, authorities of Dekina local government, and traditional Institutions towards the ongoing herdsmen attack on Oganenigu community in Dekina local government area (LGA) which has been under siege by the herders for days.

A statement signed by the Lead Director of the Centre, Comrade Omonu Gowon-Nelson, explained that the latest round of attacks started when Odede village was razed to the ground and many killed or missing at the early hours of Wednesday, 29 March, 2023.

The statement expressed disgust on the aloof disposition of Governor Bello, whom the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, recognises as the Chief Security Officer the State, of which Oganenigu community is a part.

“This is a matter relevant authorities in the state and Dekina LGA are familiar with, and why it’s taking so long for the governor to act calls for worry among the people.

“It would be recalled that a similar attack in March 2018, prompted Governor Yahaya Bello to visit Ojuwo-Ajomayegbi, where the massacre of innocent villagers took place. On that visit, the governor made series of promises aimed at addressing the frequent attacks on the community. None of the developmental promises were fulfilled, aside the instant deployment of security personnel.

“As for the latest round of carnage, trouble started, when insinuation and rumours started flying around about the large movement of armed men from Akande area of Bassa LGA towards Oganenigu community. Relevant authorities were alerted but nothing was done until Odede village ended in ruin,” the statement explained.

It further revealed that following the annihilation of Odede village and the series of fresh threats to extend the Odede horror to other parts of the community, the sick and aged men and women were traumatised and have become refugees in Anyigba, Iyale, Etutekpe etc.

“The situation in Oganenigu community as we speak is nothing short of the Hobbessian State of Nature, where life is lived in continual fear, and danger of violent death; the life of every inhabitant is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

While reminding Governor Bello and other concerned authorities that the primary purpose of any responsible government is the security of lives and property, Comrade Omonu called for urgent intervention, to bring the people’s misery to an end, even as he made case for the location of a military or Mobile Police formation in the area to forestall further occurrences.

Oganenigu Community, which consists of about 13 fairly large villages, with Aloko as the Ward headquarters has been under recurrent attacks by dare-devil herdsmen since 2015. It’s located about 22 kilometers from River Benue and 47 kilometers from Dekina, the local government headquarters.

•Mourns the dead, says, ‘We cannot re-build Nigeria through crime and violence’

The Presidential Candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, has strongly condemned the shooting at Enugu-Ukwu, Anambra State, yesterday targeted at the convoy of Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, describing it as “unfortunate and condemnable”.

Speaking to newsmen at the Abuja Airport, Obi said he was saddened when he heard about the news, especially when lives were lost. He called on the perpetrators of such crimes nationwide to have a re-think about their actions, which he described as “injurious to the growth and development Nigeria urgently needs now that suffering abounds in the land.”

Obi, who described most of the shootings going on in every part of the country as one of the cumulative effects of bad leadership over the years, said that the best way to tackle them was to go to the root causes of discontent in the land and nip them in the bud rather than pretending that Nigeria has been fair to Nigerians.

Obi

Part of his words: “I have continued to lay emphasis on the urgent need for enhanced security and protection of life and property in our society. I reiterate my unwavering commitment to put an end to all forms of violence in different parts of the country by seeking the root causes, under my watch, when elected the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Violence and killings of Nigerians under any guise whatsoever will not be accepted or tolerated under my watch as President.”

Commiserating with Governor Chukwuma Soludo, he encouraged him not to relent in his efforts to restore sanity to the state.

Obi also commiserated with the Senator Ifeanyi Ubah and the affected families over the painful incident and loss of lives. He said: “I deeply commiserate with my brother, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, and extend my heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost their loved ones in this ugly incidence.”