Tinubu meets security chiefs over rising insecurity in Nigeria

President Bola Tinubu on Thursday evening held a security meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, with the entire military command, intelligence leadership and top security advisers, including his special adviser on homeland security, Major General Adeyinka Famadewa (retd.).

Sources familiar with the meeting’s agenda disclosed that Thursday’s gathering was a comprehensive review of the security situation in the country as well as across several theatres of operation.

The closed-door meeting, which lasted for over two hours, was announced by the State House in a photograph released Thursday evening.

Present were the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu; Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (retd.); Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede; Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Waidi Isa; and the Chief of Defense Intelligence, Lieutenant General Emmanuel Undiandeye.

Also present were the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Adeola Ajayi; Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Mohammed Mohammed; Special Adviser to the President on Homeland Security, Major General Adeyinka Famadewa (retd.); and the Inspector-General of Police, Olatunde Disu, along with other representatives of the security agencies.

The meeting comes two days after troops of Operation FANSAN YAMMA, assisted by the Air Component of the Joint Task Force (North West), disrupted what the military had described as a major planned terrorist offensive in Zamfara and Katsina States.

In a July 7 operation, three Nigerian Air Force aircraft tracked a convoy of approximately 300 heavily armed terrorists on motorcycles moving from the Sunke-Kumbo axis toward Gummi and conducted precision airstrikes on the formation.

At the time of this report, the Presidency commented or issued a statement on the details of the meeting.

At a previous security meeting in March, Defence Minister Musa told State House correspondents that the armed forces had come to brief the President on a series of attacks, adding that security forces had risen to the occasion.

“Contrary to what you may read or hear, the terrorists and bandits are taking more casualties. Their commanders are being killed every day. We are confident of victory,” Musa had said.