Details Of Buhari’s Meeting With Service Chiefs, Ministers Emerge

The details of the emergency National Security Council meeting presided by President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday have emerged.

Naija News earlier reported that President Buhari met with service chiefs at the Presidential Villa, Abuja following the attack on Kuje Prison in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, and some cabinet ministers were present at the meeting.

Others at the meeting included Service Chiefs, the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (retd).

Also present were Ministers of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; Police Affairs, Maigari Dingyadi; Defense, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd.); and Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.

Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Farouk Yahaya; and the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Oladayo Amao were also in attendance.

Addressing State House Correspondents after the meeting, Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Dingyadi, said the security council has agreed to take proactive measures to forestall the recurrence of such incidents.

The minister said the council has directed service chiefs to ensure that adequate measures are taken to investigate the Kuje prison attack.

Dingyadi stated that the terrorists who attacked the Kuje prison came with superior weapons, adding that the gunmen came in numbers that nobody anticipated.

He said the President was surprised that what happened in Kuje actually took place in spite of all the security arrangements that have been made to ensure that such an incident does not happen.

The minister stated that those on duty at the facility tried their best but were overpowered, adding that some of the attackers were killed.

He said: “I want to assure you that all those who were supposed to play a role in ensuring that the attack was neutralised did the best that they could to neutralise it.

“I think what helped them was the number of people they came with and the superior weapons that they came with. And because nobody anticipated it, the few people who were there guarding the place could not withstand the number that they came with. I think that was what happened.

“Mr. President was deeply concerned about these developments, and he initiated this meeting to enable security agencies, the service chiefs, inspector-general of police, to brief the council on what actually happened and the way forward.

“We had a very successful meeting and the council has agreed to take proactive measures that will ensure that repeat of what happened these few days would not be witnessed anymore.”