Again, FG gives deadline to end security challenges nationwide

The minister said: “He (Buhari) gave the deadline of total elimination of such threat to the security of lives and property by December.

“I believe that nobody is resting in all the arms of government with the mandate of maintaining law and order, guaranteeing security, and eliminating threats.

“We are at it, and in the first instance, we must ask ourselves, governance is about ensuring the security of lives and properties. We will eliminate all insecurity issues by December.

“If you look at the state of affairs in Nigeria, I’ll tell you that a whole lot of progress had been made over the years.”

Argebesola attributed banditry and kidnapping in some parts of the country partly to the dislodging of the terrorists in the Northeast.

On securing the nation’s borderlines, he said that the government has no intention of preventing kinsmen from interacting and building relationships between their countries.

Aregbesola,  however, said Nigeria would not allow such relationships to undermine national security.

He added: “The Federal Government is not relaxing, it’s highly dedicated and committed to ensuring that border threats are managed and controlled effectively,” he added.

“Nigeria has about 5,000 kilometres of borderline, what that tells you is that it is not possible for you to have enough men that will man every inch or centimetre or milimetre of that borderline.

“But we have established border positions that are manned, spread across the entire length of the boundaries of Nigeria.

“Every line of our boundary separates communities, homogenous communities, people of the same tongue same eyes, same customs.

“So, how are you going to now ensure that the Nigerian, the Yoruba man on Nigeria side who is cut by an artificial line from his kith and kin in the Benin Republic will not interact?“

The minister said the government would soon install an electronic border surveillance system to tackle cross-border criminalities.

He challenged Nigerians to  “ support the government by getting involved, being vigilant, by appraising, notifying reporting and monitoring activities that are suspicious in and around their environment.

“Security management is a pyramid and at the very base are people and it grows up to the apex which is the commander-in-chief, under him are all the institutions guaranteeing peace and security.

“So, we all must be involved, as all of us are required to play a role in ensuring rule of law, peace, and security,” he said.

The minister lamented that recurring oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta had negatively impacted Nigeria’s economy.

“It is now a national duty if not an emergency because it is impacting so badly on our revenue and economy,” the minister said.

Aregbesola explained that the full digitisation of the passports system would completely eliminate any form of contact between passport applicants and immigration officers.