Barely 48 hours after the Presidential Brigade Guards came under attack by terrorists; President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned the Service Chiefs to an emergency security meeting which will hold on Thursday.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, disclosed this on Wednesday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“Tomorrow the President has summoned another security meeting with the heads of the security agencies,” Adesina said.
Troops of the 7 Guards Brigade which provides security for the Presidential Villa and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were ambushed in the late hours of Monday while on patrol along the Kubwa-Bwari Road in the nation’s capital.
The situation, which led to the death of three soldiers, forced the authorities to close down academic institutions in the FCT.
Two days after the incident, senators from opposition parties issued a six-week ultimatum to President Buhari to tackle the security challenges bedeviling the country.
Briefing reporters after plenary on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader, Senator Phillip Aduda, also threatened to commence impeachment proceedings against the President should he fail to address the insecurity within the period given by the lawmakers.
Reacting to the impeachment threat, the presidential spokesman was of the opinion that the opposition lawmakers were merely playing to the gallery, adding that there is not much they will do after the drama which played out in the Upper Chamber.
Downplaying the impeachment threat, he said: “I think it was just bravado, and sadly, security is not something you subject to bravado.
“You don’t begin to issue flippant ultimatums in something that is a matter of life and death,” Adesina asserted.
He further averred that “those who spoke today are the minority of minorities, they will have their say as is needful in a democracy but it will not go beyond that.”
But the presidential spokesman admitted that gunshots were heard in the area, but one shouldn’t conclude that the shots heard were from the terrorists.
Those expected to attend the meeting include the Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Gambari and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major Gen. Babagana Monguno; the Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Farouk Yahaya; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo; and the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Oladayo Amao.
Others scheduled for the meeting are the Chief of Defense Staff, General Lucky Irabor; 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.