Nigeria President, Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, had a closed-door meeting with governors from the 36 state on the security challenges across the country.
Buhari noted that the land borders of the country were closed to control the smuggling of weapons and drugs.
The presidency in a statement released quoted Buhari calling on state governors to work more with traditional rulers and community members to improve local intelligence gathering that will aid the work of security agencies.
The statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, was titled “President Buhari charges governors to work with traditional rulers for local intelligence.”
“Now that the message has sunk in with our neighbours, we are looking into reopening the borders as soon as possible,” the President said.
The President further stated that back in the days, communities identified newcomers and passed information to constituted authority.
“The sub-region is no longer safe, more so with the collapse of the former Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi’s regime and the cross border movement of weapons and criminals.”
“Governors must work with traditional rulers. Try and work with traditional rulers to boost intelligence gathering,” Shehu quoted the President as saying.
Buhari while rating his administration’s performance in the area of security, noted that his government has done well in the North East and South-South, adding that the South-South situation was still worrisome.
“Every day I get situation reports about illegal refineries and the blowing up of pipelines. You must stop local rogues from sabotaging oil installations,” the President reportedly told the governors.”
While addressing the issues of banditry and kidnapping reported in each of the geo-political zones, Buhari said “security is important and we must secure the whole country. We are thinking very hard on the issue of kidnapping. We will make it possible for the military to get to the bandits and kidnappers and eliminate them.”
Buhari also assured the governors that the country’s military will continue to get the support they needed to fight criminals.
“I am not going to the public to speak about the vehicles and equipment we have ordered. What I can say is that the military received armoured cars and other equipment and they are training the trainers. More of such equipment, including military aircraft, will come in,” he said.
