Insecurity: US, Nigeria in closed door meeting

UNITED States’ Ambassador yesterday expressed deep concern over the rise in killings and bombings in the country to the Minister of State for Defence, Erelu Olusola Agbeja Obada in her office with the service chiefs in attendance.

Although the meeting scheduled for 11.00 a.m. in the Minister’s Conference Room was to be covered by the media but the Ambassador, Mr Terence P. McCulley stopped midway expressing reservation concerning the arrangement, an indication of how sensitive the meeting would be.

The Minister then led him to her office with the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Onyeabo Ihejirika and his Air Force counterpart, Air Marshal Alex Sabundu Badeh including the acting Permanent Secretary of the ministry.

However, an inside source at the meeting told the Nigerian Tribune that the Ambassador did not hide his feelings on the security arrangement in the country as innocent people are being killed on a daily basis.

He expressed the concern of the US government over the rise in terrorist attacks and cited the example of the Kano bombings and those that reportedly took place in Jos and Maiduguri recently and admonished the security chiefs on the need to do more in containing the menace.

“The US Ambassador was quoted as telling the Minister of Defence and the service chiefs that his country was not happy with the alarming rise in the terrorist attacks and made a particular reference to the Kano incident where five luxury buses scheduled to travel to Lagos were bombed which led to the death of over 80 people.”

He called for more intelligence gathering to prevent such an attack and disclosed the readiness of the US government in this regard.

Although it was promised that the Ambassador would speak with the media after the meeting but he could not do that, however, the meeting continued with the service chiefs before some GOCs later came in to join in the meeting.

The source further disclosed that the Minister was able to convince the Ambassador about what the military is doing to contain the Boko Haram and cited the recent successes recorded and the arraignment of a kingpin, Kabiru Sokoto last week and how the military has been consistently arresting some members of the sect and exposing their hideouts in the country.

The service chiefs were said to have cited the military assaults on the Islamic extremists in Mali by the AFISMA as the factor responsible for the upsurge in the terrorist attack and vowed to contain them.

Speaking with newsmen later, the Minister, Olusola Obada, explained that the meeting with the Ambassador was a regular one that has to do with the US-Nigeria Bilateral Relations and how to improve upon it especially as it regards the military support and other areas that are of mutual interest to the two.

“We have a beautiful meeting with the Ambassador to further deepen the cooperation between Nigeria and the United States and we discussed a lot of issues that are beneficial with both countries. United States of America and Nigeria have come a very long way together in terms of military cooperation, in terms of training and so many other things.”
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