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.”
