Details of the Tuesday closed session between the Senate and leadership of the nation’s security forces have emerged.
They showed that at the marathon session in which the security chiefs led by the national security adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, gave the lawmakers a lowdown of fruits being yielded by their ongoing efforts to tame insecurity in the country.
The NSA, ministers and security chiefs allegedly took turns to give the lawmakers vivid accounts of their exploits and how they have led to averting major terrorist attacks since President Bola Tinubu assumed office last May.
A ranking lawmaker who was part of the briefing told some reporters yesterday in Abuja that though the lawmakers went into the meeting with a lot of misgivings and apprehension, the security chiefs allayed their fears and earned the confidence of the senators.
At the end of the meeting, the Senate leadership expressed confidence in the security chiefs and applauded their efforts iat addressing the security concerns.
According to the lawmaker, Ribadu, who gave the lead presentation, took the lawmakers through different components of the security challenges explaining how they met the situation and the changes so far.
He spoke about how wanton violence has significantly gone down thus pushing down the number of casualties from attacks by armed groups.
He said Boko Haram and ISWAP now resort to planting IEDs showing that they were regressing from their comfort zones. Ribadu attributed the success in the fight against Boko Haram to the gallantry of troops and the hard work of the Borno State Government.
The NSA told the lawmakers that 20 gunrunning networks were smashed and over 5,000 military grade weapons were seized and destroyed by government agencies.
The NSA told the lawmakers that sporadic incidences of kidnapping being reported in most parts of the country were pointers that security kidnapping and banditry have now evolved into economic crimes substituting armed robbery as an easy means of making money through criminal means.
He said the country is today witnessing significant increase in oil production and relative peace in the South-East region, which was hitherto bedeviled by activities of gunmen, due to concerted military and non-military steps.
“The Chief of Air Staff also gave an excellent account of how the air component of the war complements the work of troops on ground. He mentioned how they killed two key leaders of bandits Ali Kacalla and Yellow Janburos and how that has helped to halt interstate movement of bandits and logistics especially around Kaduna, Niger and Zamfara States,” the lawmaker said.
He recalled the Inspector General of Police also speaking about routing out criminals in the suburbs of Abuja and how his men have checkmated activities of one-chance criminals in the capital city.
Despite the satisfaction expressed by most lawmakers, others pointed to areas of operational lapses that deserve attention and urged the service chiefs to ensure harmony and cooperation for maximum success.
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