•No law enforcement agencies in liberate areas – C’ttee
Senator Iroegbu and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The Federal government has promised to implement the recommendations of the Inter-ministerial Committee mandated to advise it on the planned handing over of areas in the North-East liberated by the military from Book Haram terrorists.
The Minister of Defence, Brig-Gen. Mansur Muhammad Dan-Ali (rtd.), gave this assurance on Thursday while receiving the report submitted by the committee after its six-week sojourn in the affected States of the North-east – Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa.
He added that the feedback received from the people and the governments of the affected states was commendable.
He said:”I followed with keen interest the activities of your committee in the field. From the reports I was receiving I was convinced we have selected the right people for the right job.”
“I have listen carefully to the chairman’s presentations and I want to assure the honourable members of this committee that the government will carefully study the report with a view to implementing some of not all the recommendations.”
The minister also assured that the present government resolve to completely eradicate insurgency and criminality in the north-east in particular and Nigeria in general remain unchanged.
“Let me also use this opportunity to warn any person, or group of individuals or organisations under whatever cover who wish to test the collective will of this administration to know that we will not fold our arms and allow them to destroy our nation.
“All relevant security agencies of the federal Republic of Nigeria have been mobilised to swing into action to identify and crush any possible threat to our country,” he warned.
Earlier, the chairman of the committee, Maj-Gen. Azgaku Umar (rtd) said that rehabilitation forms part of the larger government strategy in rebuilding the north-east.
He however noted that because of the security challenges in the affected areas that there were no civil and law enforcement agencies in the liberated areas for the restoration of civil rule.
