The National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, 19 governors of the Northern States and Service Chiefs, on Thursday, held a marathon meeting in the Office of the NSA (ONSA), to review security situation in Northern Nigeria and possibly proffer lasting solution.
The meeting, which was held behind closed-door, started at about 1:30pm and ended at about 6pm.
LEADERSHIP reports that terrorists had on March 7, 2024, abducted about 287 students and teachers from the LEA Primary and Junior Secondary School, Kuriga in Chikun local government area of Kaduna State.
Also, 112 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Gamboru Ngala LGA of Borno State were also abducted by terrorists few days ago while 15 Tsangaya students were also abducted in Sokoto State last weekend.
The chairman, Northern Governors Forum, Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State, said the meeting was convened to discuss and review strategies towards tackling cases of insecurity in the North.
“The essence of the meeting as you can see is between the governors and the Service Chiefs and the National Security Adviser.
“So it relates to security and you know security is very typical, especially that there were the recent issues of kidnapping in the North-West and we are becoming so concerned that we need to discuss, review and possibly take alternative options to what we have been doing before so that we can have a better result,” he stated.
The governor added that the need for a collaborative approach to tackling insecurity in the region necessitated the meeting.
He stressed the need for non-kinetic and kinetic approaches to address the remote causes of insecurity.
Yahaya noted that the security agencies were doing their best, but there was the need for non-kinetic approach to address the root causes of the problem.
“In fact, that’s the best way to go because the issue is until we join the two (approaches) and already the Service Chiefs and all other security agencies have been doing their best trying to cover.
“So what we need to do is to change style, especially in addition with the non-kinetic approach, so that at the end of it when we join the two, we’ll have a better security situation in the country,” he stated.
