President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday bemoaned the death of military officers at a time the country is battling security challenges, saying last Friday’s plane crash has increased the nation’s security problem.
He spoke while receiving a delegation of Nigeria Governors’ Forum led by its chairman and governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, who paid him a condolence visit at the State House, Abuja, over the death of Chief of Army Lt Gen Ibrahim Attahiru and 10 others in a military plane crash in Kaduna on Friday.
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Buhari said: “This is a situation that only God knows when it’ll happen and it happened at a time when the security situation in the country is a fundamental issue.
“And to lose choice officers has increased our problem, but we know what we are in for and we’ll continue to work hard and pray hard so that God will give us the power to appreciate and apply ourselves to the problem.
“The people who elected us, they know the promises we made within the time…the circumstances which we find ourselves…we’ll keep on trying and continue to do our best.”
In his remarks, Fayemi described the death of the officers as a big blow, saying, however, that “For us we must defeat banditry, insurgency and criminality. That’s the mandate you gave them. This should not lead to any retreat or surrender on our part.”
