Tinubu meets security chiefs after bandit convoy airstrike

President Bola Tinubu met behind closed doors with Nigeria’s top security chiefs in Abuja on Thursday to review the country’s deteriorating security situation, days after the military said it foiled a major terrorist offensive in Zamfara and Katsina states.

ABUJA — President Bola Ahmed Tinubu convened a closed-door meeting with the country’s top security chiefs at the Presidential Villa on Thursday, as the Federal Government took stock of a security landscape growing more volatile by the week.

According to Tribune, the session centred on a comprehensive review of security challenges and developments across the various theatres of operation nationwide.

In the room were National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, Minister of Defence Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, Chief of Defence Staff Christopher Musa, Chief of Army Staff Olufemi Oluyede, and Chief of Defence Intelligence Emmanuel Undiandeye.

Also present were DSS Director-General Adeola Ajayi, NIA Director-General Mohammed Mohammed, the President’s Special Adviser on Homeland Security, Major General Adeyinka Famadewa (retd.), Inspector-General of Police Olatunde Disu, and other senior security officials.

The high-level gathering came just 48 hours after troops under Operation FANSAN YAMMA, backed by the Air Component of the Joint Task Force (North West), thwarted what the military called a major planned terrorist offensive spanning Zamfara and Katsina states.

The military said the operation unfolded on July 7, when three Nigerian Air Force aircraft tracked a convoy of roughly 300 heavily armed terrorists riding motorcycles from the Sunke-Kumbo axis toward Gummi, before precision airstrikes were unleashed on the convoy.

No details of the outcome of Thursday’s meeting were immediately released to the public.

The high-level consultation unfolds against a backdrop of mounting concern over relentless attacks by terrorists, bandits, and other armed groups terrorising communities across multiple regions of the country.