The United Nations (UN), has pledged to assist Nigeria in the fight against terrorism and strengthen its internal security network in line with international best practice.

Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for West Africa, made the pledge when he visited the Minister of Interior, retired Lt.-Gen. Abulrahman Dambazau in Abuja on Thursday.

Chambas said the UN was ready to support Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram, especially in the area of training of security officials and counter terrorism initiatives.

``Let me say that the UN in Nigeria and at large looks forward to building fruitful cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and other security agencies in the fight against terrorism.

``We acknowledge your efforts and we are ready to support you in this regard, including the area of training and counter-terrorism’’, he said.

He said there was need for peace and stability to achieve meaningful development in Nigeria and therefore called on all stakeholders to join the Federal Government in achieving this.

The UN envoy said apart from fighting terrorism, the UN was also concerned about trans-national crimes such as human and drug trafficking in West Africa.

He said the UN would continue to work with Nigeria and other relevant stakeholders to tackle the trans-national crime and ensure better implementation of regional protocols.

Chambas harped on the need for Nigeria to quickly key into the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are universal set of goals, targets and indicators of development.

Earlier, Dambazau stressed the need to move away from the traditional methods of internal security to a more sophisticated and proactive approach in view of the prevailing circumstance.

He charged the security chiefs under his ministry especially the Police and the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), to redouble their efforts in maintaining law and order, curtailing human trafficking and other vices.

Dambazau thanked Chambas for the visit and called for more synergy with UN in order to fast track the development process of Nigeria (NAN)

•Photo shows UN Sec-Gen, Ban Ki-moon.

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