By Joseph Akinrinade

Nigeria’s security chiefs have given themselves thumbs-up in the ongoing armed forces and the police war against kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery and other related crimes in various parts of the country.

The security chiefs, who adjudged the strategies they had adopted against the crimes as working, promised to sustain them for better result.

Military and police personnel under various operations have been deployed in troubled states to curb the terrorism in the Northeast, herders/farmers’ clashes in the North Central and banditry in the Northwest, which many believe have overstretched the security forces.

The troops and other security officers are also engaged against kidnappers in the northern and southern parts of the country, where hundreds of suspects have been arrested, arms and other dangerous weapons recovered, and their victims in some cases, freed.

The most recent of such feats took place in Kano on Tuesday when the Magajin Garin Daura, Alhaji Musa Umar Uba, was rescued after two months in the kidnappers’ den. Uba, who is the district head of Daura in Katsina State, was abducted from his palace by suspected gunmen on May 1, 2019.  Some of the suspects were arrested during the raid in the den while the Kano State government immediately demolished the house used by the criminals for their heinous acts.

After security meeting yesterday at the presidential villa, Abuja, with President Muhammadu Buhari, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, told journalists that the armed forces in conjunction with other security agencies were working hard to ensure that Nigerians sleep with their eyes closed and that the country’s territorial integrity was not compromised.

He said that the service chiefs and other heads of the security agencies were not contemplating changing the strategies currently deployed in the various fronts to curb the embarrassing spate of insecurity in the country because they were yielding results.

The air chief said that what was rather needed was for all hands to be on deck, stressing that every Nigerian has a responsibility to pass relevant intelligence to the security personnel or outfits to strengthen their operations.

On the outcome of the meeting, he explained that it was all about the security of Nigerians and the country.

According to him, “the message coming out of that meeting is that the armed forces of Nigeria and other security forces will continue to work hard to ensure that every Nigerian is secure and the territorial integrity of the country is not undermined by anybody.

“I think the strategy has already been changed and from what we are seeing, the current strategy is working. What we are going to do is to ensure that all hands are on deck and every Nigerian equally has a role to play by passing relevant intelligence to us.

“So far, the strategy that we have on ground is really working and that is the one we will continue to pursue,” he said.