Molly Kilete, Abuja
The minister for Defence Bashir Magashi, Wednesday met with members of the Presidential Commitment set up to end banditary, insurgency and other violent crimes bedeviling the country.
The meeting is coming on the heels of President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval of a joint military and police operation to rid bandits in Niger, Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto states.
The meeting which held at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja, had Ministers of Defence, Maj Gen Bashir Salihi Magashi, Police Affairs, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, Interior, Rauf Aregbesola and Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed in attendance.
The meeting which lasted about three hours and held behind closed doors, centered on strategies to be deployed in combating the new wave of banditry, kidnapping which has become the order of the day in some parts of the country and restore normalcy in the shortest possible time.
Magashi, in an interview with journalists shortly after the meeting said the military would redouble their efforts to decimate the bandits for peace to reign in their operational axis.
He also said the inter-ministerial meeting would be hold every fortnight.
Also speaking, Police Affairs minister, Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi assured on effective inter-ministerial and inter- agencies collaboration to evolve new operational guidelines for implementation by security agencies involved in anti-banditary and anti- insurgency operations.
On his part, information minister, Lai Mohammed said the meeting focused on how to deploy crisis communication strategy to end the phenomenon of banditary activities in the country even as he noted the importance of information sharing and synergy among security agencies with a view to flushing out criminalities in the country.
He said all hands must be on deck to support government’s efforts to curb insecurity in the country.
