President Muhammadu Buhari will today have an “emergency” meeting with security chiefs to further review and strengthen security network in the country. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement Sunday.
This is coming days after the United States and the United Kingdom had issued travel advisories to their citizens in Nigeria over “an elevated” risk of terrorist attacks in the country, especially in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
The US State Department had on Wednesday authorised the departure of its government employees and their families from Nigeria over potential terrorist attacks.
Similarly, Germany, Denmark, Bulgaria and Ireland had also last week cautioned their citizens against non-essential travels to Abuja.
The Federal Government, through the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had since dismissed the advisories and specifically stated that the US was also not safe.
But Buhari had, on his return to Abuja on Friday after a six-day official visit to Seoul, the capital of South Korea, for the First World Bio Summit 2022, said “security threats are real and have been with us for a long while, but the country’s military, police and other security agencies have shown the capability to deal with…”
The president had also said the travel advisories from the US and the UK should not be a cause for panic, asking Nigerians to remain calm.
He had further advised the nation’s security establishment and entire citizens to continue to be vigilant and careful with security.
Buhari had said the travel advice was not an indication that there would be attacks on the FCT and added that it was important to avoid panic as the security agents had been in charge of the situation since the July prison raid in Kuje.
In a statement yesterday, the presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, said Buhari would, at today’s emergency security meeting, receive briefs from the security chiefs and interject on areas requiring more attention.
Shehu said Buhari, who was initially scheduled to commission the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) new technology and innovation complex, had to postpone the commissioning to a later date because of today’s meeting.