President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in Abuja challenged security chiefs on the need to bring an end cases to crude oil theft in the country.

The Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, said the president gave the challenge when he met behind closed doors with security chiefs, at the State House, Abuja.

Adamu said the president specifically enjoined the security agencies to intensify security along the petroleum pipelines and other facilities to check the menace.

“Sequel to the improvement in the general security situation in the country, we have been charged by the President to ensure there is a near zero crime society in all geo-political zones; in fact, the whole of the country.

“So, we’ve also been charged to increase security along the pipelines, to make sure that crude oil theft is stopped completely because the loss that the country is facing in that regard is not tolerated,’’ he said.

The IGP also noted that the country had witnessed a significant drop in the activities of bandits and kidnappers following an improvement in security situation across the country.

“We have noticed within this quarter that the security situation in the country is stable. We made comparison of what happened in the previous quarters and this last quarter and we saw that there is tremendous decrease in kidnappings, banditry, armed robbery and even acts of cultism.

“You can see from the situation in the North-West zone of the country that banditry and kidnapping has reduced tremendously and we have statistics to back what we are saying,’’ he said

Adamu also revealed that a good number of bandits and kidnappers had been apprehended along Kaduna – Abuja and Kaduna – Birnin Gwari roads.

According to him, many of the bandits’ camps had been destroyed while the police have intensified efforts to apprehend those bandits who refused to surrender.

“Those that refused to accept peace the initiatives we have been able to identify their camps especially along Kaduna – Abuja road; along Birnin Gwari – Niger axis and we went to the dens of these kidnappers, we went to their camps and we dislodged some of these camps.

“In fact in the security meeting we gave specific numbers of the camps we destroyed and the casualties the bandits recorded as a result of that.

“So, that had made also some of them to surrender and some of them relocated. Those that have relocated we are following them to know the new locations with a view to apprehending them,” he said.

The Boss Police said security agencies were also advised to support the peace initiative on Tiv/Jukun crisis in Benue and Taraba states in order to achieve sustainable peace in the affected areas.

“Recently, there have series of peace initiatives especially the Tiv/Jukun crisis, the Federal Government came up with initiatives by bringing the leadership of the two states and their traditional rulers.

“We have been asked to support that initiative and see to it that dialogue succeeds and that there is peace between the Jukun and Tiv,”he said. (NAN)

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