President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday held a high-level security meeting with service chiefs and heads of intelligence agencies at the State House, Abuja, amid mounting concerns over the country’s security situation.

The closed-door session, described as an emergency meeting, was attended by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede; the Chief of Army, Lt. Gen Waidi Shaibu; the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Idi Abbas; the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sunday Anele; the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Oluwatosin Ajayi; the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Mohammed Mohammed, and the Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu.

Also present was the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, alongside other top security officials at the State House.

The meeting comes against the backdrop of recent developments, including a travel advisory issued by the United States Department of State authorising the voluntary departure of non-emergency government personnel and their families from its embassy in Abuja.

The advisory, issued on April 8, cited what it described as a “deteriorating security situation” and placed 23 of Nigeria’s 36 states under a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” classification, the highest risk category. Newly added states include Plateau, Jigawa, Kwara, Niger, and Taraba.

US authorities highlighted threats ranging from insurgency in the Northeast to banditry in the Northwest and North-Central, as well as persistent violence in parts of the South and Southeast, including oil-producing regions.

The embassy subsequently suspended visa appointments in Abuja, although its Lagos consulate continues to offer routine and emergency services.

Reacting, the Federal Government dismissed the advisory as a routine precaution based on US internal protocols, insisting it does not reflect the broader security reality across the country.

Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said while isolated incidents persist, “there is no general breakdown of law and order, and the vast majority of the country remains stable.”

The emergency security meeting is also taking place in the wake of a controversial Nigerian Air Force airstrike in Borno State that reportedly killed over 100 civilians.

The strike, which occurred on Saturday at Jilli Market along the Borno-Yobe border, targeted suspected Boko Haram locations.

While the Nigerian Air Force confirmed carrying out “precision mop-up airstrikes on identified terrorist locations” in the Jilli axis, it did not acknowledge civilian casualties or confirm that a market was hit.

The Presidency, however, defended the operation, stating that the location had been compromised by insurgents.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Tope Ajayi, told Bloomberg that the market had become “a legitimate military target” after Boko Haram and ISWAP fighters turned it into a logistics and trading hub.

Nigeria continues to grapple with multifaceted security challenges across its regions, including insurgency in the Northeast, banditry and kidnapping in the Northwest and North-Central, and separatist unrest in the Southeast, placing sustained pressure on the country’s security architecture. (The Nation)

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