President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, met behind closed-doors with some northern governors and heads of security agencies at the Council Chambers, Presidential Villa Abuja.
Although no details were officially provided on the meeting, either through interview or statement, to the media, it was gathered from sources that it was all about solving the security issues bugging some part
s of the region.
Among governors at the meeting were Simon Lalong of Plateau, Nasir El-Rufa’i of Kaduna, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano, Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto, Sani Bello of Niger, Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa, Babagana Zulum of Borno, Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara.
It was gathered that both governors of Katsina and Yobe, Bello Masari and Mai Mala Buni, were also expected, but were unavoidably absent.
Also present at the meeting were the Chief of Defense Staff, General Lucky Irabor; the Minister of Defense, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd), and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd);
Others were the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Farouk Yahaya; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo; and the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Oladayo Amao.
Also in attendance were the Inspector-General of Police, Alkali Baba Usman; the Director-General of the Department of State Service (DSS), Yusuf Bichi; and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, are in attendance.
A source in the Presidential Villa, who spoke under anonymity, said the meeting was in connection to the security situation in the states whose governors were in attendance.
According to the source, “It was all about finding a sustainable solution to the security situation in those northern states. If you observed, the problems facing all the states represented are almost uniform; banditry and terrorism. So it’s something like a central situation room thing.”
