By ISMAILA CHAFE

The National Security Adviser (NSA) to the President, retired Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, says President Muhammadu Buhari is to announce a critical solution to the #EndSARS protest in a couple of hours.

Monguno, who made this known at the end of the fourth National Security Council meeting, presided by the president in Abuja on Thursday said Buhari also directed all security agencies to always operate within the confine of legitimacy and legality.

He said the president also urged the security agencies to always avoid anything that would aggravate the nation’s security challenges.

He also stated that the president would soon come up with certain solutions to address the security challenges in the country, saying the president directed that government would also do all it could to arrive at an agreeable resolution to the crisis.

According to him, the president also called on all aggrieved persons to come to the negotiation table with a view to finding solutions to the problems.

“This situation, we all know is very very grave situation, giving a lot of concern to everyone most especially Mr President.

“Mr President has directed that government should do whatever is necessary in order to bring about an agreeable resolution to this crisis.

“So far, the government has been able to concede to the demands of the protesters. The initial demands have been considered and it appears now that the riots are taking a different and unwanted dimension.

“Mr President is very concerned about this development and does not want a situation in which everything breaks down and results in anarchy, in lawlessness and people taking the law into their own hands.

“For one thing, if government can begin to make concessions, then its also logical for the protesters, those that are aggrieved also to take a step back, take stock of their activities and come to a meeting point with government and its agencies.

“It is not Mr President’s desire to see any unwanted loss of live and he is determined to ensure that things do not cascade into unpleasant situation.

“Therefore, he has directed all the security agencies to operate within the confine of legitimacy, within the confine of legality, not to do anything that will aggravate this situation.

“The president, himself, had just left his office and he is also going to deal with this issue in a separate manner apart from what had just taken place in Council.

“I believe in the next couple of hours Mr President would come up with certain solution that will be agreeable to the entire federation,’’ he said.

According to him, the president also called on all aggrieved persons to come to the negotiation table with a view to finding solutions to the problems.

“The security agencies have been asked to apply as much restraint as possible. But then again, the youths should also understand that pushing their luck might also result in an unwanted issues.

“So, it is very very important for everyone to take stock of what has already happened and not give a dark impression of this country to the international community,” he added.

On the reported attack on protesters at Lekki Toll Gate, the NSA said: “The government is looking into the incident that happened about 48 hours ago.

“You know, we can’t deal or act on conjectures, oppositions and so on and so forth. We need to verify things first.

“But the government is not oblivious of the fact that certain things had happened and there is also a possibility that actual facts could be distorted by either party.

“So, the government is going to look at that before coming up with something. But definitely, government is not treating this issue lightly.”

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that those in attendance at the meeting include Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Ministers of Defence, Bashir Magashi; Interior, Rauf Aregbesola; Police Affairs, Alhaji Maigari Dingyadi and Geoffrey Onyaema, Foreign Affairs.

Others at the meeting were; Service Chiefs; Director-General, Department of State Services, Alhaji Yusuf Bichi, the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufa’i, the Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, as well as other members of security and intelligence community. (NAN)

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