Jonathan in crucial meeting with security chiefs

By Evelyn Okakwu

Two days after his return from a regional summit in France, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday held a closed door meeting with service chiefs to review the security situation in the country.

Although journalists were not briefed after the meeting, it was gathered that the ongoing efforts to rescue the over 200 Chibok school girls abducted over a month ago, as well as Sunday night’s bomb blast in Kano in which 10 people were feared killed, were discussed.

A source told State House journalists that the president demanded an update from the service chiefs on the ongoing search-and-rescue operations on the Chibok abduction.

The meeting, it was learnt, also discussed the decisions reached at the regional security summit on Nigeria held weekend in Paris, at the instance of President Francois Hollande.

The two-hour meeting, which was held in the president’s office, was attended by Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Kenneth Minimah, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin, and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu.

Also in attendance were the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar and the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Ita Ekpeyong.

Chibok: Air Force intensifies aerial surveillance

Meanwhile, as global outcry continues unabated over the abduction of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno state, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) said yesterday that it has continued its intense surveillance of the entire North-east region of the country.

Defence spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, who revealed this at the daily media briefing by the National Information Centre, Abuja, said already, discussions and collaborations are on-going between

Nigeria and the countries offering assistance in the search for the missing girls.

Dousing insinuations that Nigerians troops were not engaged in search for the girls, the Centre displayed photographs showing members of the armed forces in various locations in the region.

Earlier, Coordinator of the Centre, Mr. Mike Omeri, who is Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), had disclosed that there were active land and air patrols by troops within the North-east, and that Nigeria and her partners were in constant touch with each other on the issue.

Omeri expressed official suspicion that the threat letter allegedly sent to a secondary school in Makurdi, Benue state, about Boko Haram terrorists was a handiwork of mischief makers and probably not from the sect.

“But we will not take things for granted and so, security measures have been taken around the school to ensure maximum protection. It could also be the handiwork of copy cat criminals. Security forces are not taking chances. A copy of the handwritten letter is being carefully studied for further action”, Frank Mba, spokesperson for the Nigeria Police clarified.