President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday, at the Presidential Villa, had a closed door meeting with service chiefs.

The president proceeded to Daura, Kastina State, for Eid-el-Kabir celebration shortly afterwards.

Speaking with State House correspondents after the meeting with Buhari, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Maj. Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin, said the essence of the meeting was to review the security situation in the country.

He said that the meeting focused mainly on the situation in Benue, Zamfara and Taraba States.

“We just had two and half hour meeting with the President and Commander in Chief, we reviewed the security situation across the country in all the geopolitical zones.

“We made all our comments; especially the new operations in Benue, Zamfara, Taraba, Operation Whirlstroke and Operation Saradaji.

“We gave the extent of successes in these operations and we are to continue in this line of action in these operations.

“All the operations were reviewed and all the issues concerning the operations were dealt with.

“He directed that we should continue to step up our game to ensure that the nation is safe and people go about their daily activities in a very safe manner,’’ he said.

On his part, the Minister of Defence, Dan Ali Monsur, said the meeting was a normal routine security briefing with the president.

He said it was an update on what transpired when the President was away.

“We have seen that there is a lot of improvement in the security situation in the country, especially in Zamfara and Benue States and in the Niger Delta.

“In the North-East, we are having a worrisome report; we have looked into it critically and we have taken an absolute decision,’’ he said.

Other service chiefs at the meeting with Buhari were Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Theophilus Buratai, Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ebok Ibas and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar.

Also in attendance were the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, the National Security Adviser, Rtd. Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, Acting Director General, Department of State Service (DSS), Matthew Seiyefa, Director General, National Intelligence Agency(NIA), Ahmed Abubakar and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha. (NAN)

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