President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, charged the governors to work more with traditional rulers and community members to improve local intelligence gathering to tackle the security challenges facing the country.
Buhari stated this during a meeting with the state governors on the issue of security at the State House, Abuja, after listening to presentations by a governor from each of the six geo-political zones on their specific security challenges.
“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,” he was quoted by his spokesman, Garba Shehu.
Buhari, while giving an overview of the security situation in each of the zones, said his administration had 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,” he added.
The President, while addressing the issue of banditry and kidnapping reported in each of the geo-political zones, 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.”
He said the closure of the nation’s land borders was partly an attempt to control the smuggling in of weapons and drugs.
“Now that the message has sunk in with our neighbours, we are looking into reopening the borders as soon as possible,” he said.
President Buhari assured that the country’s military would 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 aircrafts will come in,” he added.
Buhari, who noted that the foreign press coverage of the EndDSARS protest was not balanced, cited specifically the CNN and BBC, for omitting the number of policemen killed, police stations that were razed, and the prisons that were thrown open for inmates to escape.
The President, while commenting on the eight-month long strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities, said lecturers had not taken into consideration the larger challenges facing the country.
