The Presidency has expressed delight at the enhanced collaboration of the country’s law enforcement agencies, culminating to the arrests of individuals who have inflicted pain and hardship on Nigerians.
The Presidency is reacting to the synchronisation of their cross-border operations, which led to the re-arrest of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
It says the successes of security agencies must be commended as they have demonstrated significant deftness, guile and secrecy in carrying out the mission.
In a statement by the Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the government says such professional trait must be sustained and focused on eliminating those who have found a new trade in targeting students, rural dwellers and other citizens in the northwest.
It alleges that the violence inspired by IPOB has led to hundreds of fatalities, particularly targeted at government assets and law enforcement agents, including over 50 separate violent attacks, heavily concentrated in the southeast, which heaped further hardship on innocent and hardworking citizens, preventing them from their socio-economic activities.
The statement says government has long been monitoring the activities of IPOB, adding that it has strong cause to believe that their funding sources include proceeds of suspected illicit criminal activities.
The Presidency notes that by the commendable action of Nigerian security forces, sanity, calm, and peace have returned to communities which previously lived in constant fear of whom it describes as misguided elements.
It says in furtherance of continued diligent work, the State Security Service last week raided the residence of a militant ethnic secessionist, who has also been conducting acts of terror and disturbing the peace under the guise of protecting his kinsmen.
According to the statement, his seditious utterances and antics, which he is known to have publicly expressed, have overtime morphed into very hateful and vile-laden speeches.
The Presidency emphasises that the government respects the fundamental rights of citizens to express their views, warning however that any attempt to build an armoury to undermine Nigeria’s unity will not be condoned.
It explains that President Buhari’s directives to security services regarding anyone seen to be carrying arms are clear and require no further elucidation.
The Presidency points out that assault weapons are not tools of peace-loving people, and urged security agencies to give same treatment to all illegal weapons-wielding persons.
From Bello Wakili
