Shettima Holds Emergency Meeting With Security Heads

CHANNELS TV

Following resurgence of attacks by remnants of the ‎Boko Haram insurgents in some parts of Borno State, Governor Kashim Shettima, has held an emergency security meeting with security operatives.

The meeting was attended by heads of the Nigerian Army, Air Force, Police and the Department of State Services (DSS), with proactive measures taken on how to increase surveillance and forestall unanticipated security breach.

Governor Shettima began with a three-hour closed door meeting with the Theater Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Leo Irabor, on Friday at the Government House in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

‎During the meeting, he was briefed on recent attacks and ongoing military operations while discussions were held with assurances that the remnants of the insurgents were on suicidal mission, given their displacement from their former headquarters at the Sambisa forest.

Spokesman to the governor, Mr Isa Gusau, said in a statement issued on Sunday that after meeting with the Theater Commander who is not a member of the State Security Council, Governor Shettima presided over an emergency meeting of the State Security Council that involved core armed forces.

At the end of meeting, new guard locations were established in some routes across the state to curtail the movement of the Boko Haram fighters.

The number of security personnel deployed to various locations were also increased with more members of the Civilian JTF (youth volunteers) involved.

Governor Shettima also gave approval for the release of additional patrol vehicles to security agencies for increased surveillance in the state.

He also approved logistics to compliment efforts of the Federal Government in strengthening the armed forces, while measures were adopted to strengthen the Civilian JTF and hunters.

The Council also reviewed the synergy between formal armed forces and volunteers, with steps adopted to increase collaboration and clamp down on cattle rustling used by insurgents to raise funds.

The meeting, which lasted for over three hours at the council chambers of the Government House, had in attendance ‎the General Officer Commanding, Seven Division of the Army, Brigadier General Victor Ezugwu; the Commander, 79 Composite group of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Charles Ohwo; the Borno State Commissioner of Police, Damian Chukwu, and the Garrison Commander, Seven Division of the Army, Brigadier General Jibrin Mohammed.

Others at the meeting are the State Director of the DSS, Suleiman Kankia, Commandant of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Ibrahim Abdullahi, the Secretary to the State Government, Usman Shuwa, the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Kaka Lawan and the Permanent Secretary in charge of Security.