President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is currently in a closed-door meeting with Nigeria’s top military and security chiefs at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, as concerns over national security continue to mount.
The high-level engagement is coming against the backdrop of rising insecurity across several parts of the country, including the continued captivity of 115 students abducted from a Catholic boarding school in Niger State last month. The incident has sparked nationwide outrage and renewed pressure on the Federal Government to act decisively.
This is the President’s first major security briefing with the military leadership since the swearing-in of General Christopher Musa (retd.) as Minister of Defence on December 4. The meeting also follows Tinubu’s declaration of a national security emergency on November 26, after a wave of violent attacks, mass kidnappings and banditry incidents.
As part of earlier emergency measures, the President approved fresh recruitment into security agencies and ordered the withdrawal of police personnel attached to private individuals, with the aim of strengthening internal security operations.
The emergency talks are also taking place just days after the Senate endorsed Tinubu’s request to deploy Nigerian troops to the Republic of Benin following a failed coup attempt in the neighbouring country.
Sources indicate that the meeting is a continuation of ongoing security reviews held in recent weeks, including a similar engagement earlier this month amid escalating attacks in states such as Niger, Kwara and Kebbi.
Present at the meeting are the Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede; Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General W. Shaibu; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral I. Abbas; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sunday Aneke; Chief of Defence Intelligence, Lieutenant General Emmanuel Undiandeye; Director-General of the Department of State Services, Adeola Ajayi; and the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun.
As of the time of filing this report, details of the deliberations remain undisclosed, but the meeting is widely seen as part of urgent efforts to reassess Nigeria’s security strategy amid growing public concern.
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