President Umaru Yar’Adua Photo: Sun News Publishing

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Irked by the deteriorating situation in the Niger Delta where militants have gone on rampage abducting people at will and demanding ransoms, President Umaru Yar’Adua yesterday convened a high level security meeting to seal government’s strategy on how to halt the ugly trend.

The meeting involved all the country’s security chiefs, including the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Andrew Azazi, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Luka Yusuf, the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye, Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Paul Dike and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro.

Also present at the meeting presided over by President Yar’Adua are the National Security Adviser to the President, the Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS), the heads of other security agencies, the governors of Rivers and Bayelsa States as well as some top government functionaries.

The meeting which was initially scheduled for 10 am was later moved forward to noon because of what our correspondent learnt was the difficulty which the governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amechi had in getting a flight from Port Harcourt to Abuja.

A source at the Presidential Villa, venue of the meeting, said the meeting reviewed the situation in the region, particularly Bayelsa State where the militants abducted the father of the deputy governor of the state, released him after nearly one week only to take in the father of the state’s accountant-general.
“There is no way any responsible government will just fold its arms and watch these so called militants hold the country or any part of it to ransom. Whichever way it is going to be done, the nonsense must have to stop,” our source stated.

Although details of the meeting, which was held behind closed doors were not made public, the Saturday Sun reliably gathered that henceforth, it would be hell for any person or group who indulges in kidnapping of innocent citizens or foreigners in our midst.

“No country grows with the kind of lawlessness that is taking place in the Niger Delta every now and then. It will not be allowed to continue, obviously not in the new year. Whoever that decides to take laws into his hand will have himself or herself to blame,” our source added.