Ahead of today’s enlarged National Security Council meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and the 36 state governors over the deplorable security situation in the country, there were strong indications last night that the Federal Government may order the immediate closure of Nigeria’s borders with its neighbouring countries.
The measure will particularly be on the country’s borders on the northern flank. Last week, delegates to the National Conference, who expressed shock at the abduction of female students from Government Girls College, Chibok, Borno State by insurgents and the devastating bomb blasts in Nyanya, Abuja, had asked President Jonathan to shutdown Nigeria’s borders.
Nigerian Pilot learnt exclusively last night that President Jonathan was well disposed to the Confab suggestion and would present it to the governors at today’s meeting.
The development came as fears has gripped residents of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states over what today’s parley holds for them, as the one-year-old emergency rule imposed in the states, expired last Friday.
Today’s meeting will be attended by the 36 state governors of the federation as the governors of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who were absent at last week’s edition, have agreed to attend.
Nigerian Pilot further learnt yesterday that the Security Council meeting would come after the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting. It was also gathered that some governors had started arriving in Abuja last night for the meeting.
Top security sources hinted that President Jonathan would among others, present to the governors for deliberation the outcome of his last week’s meeting with the Minister of Defence, Gen. Aliyu Gusau, National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) and the Service Chiefs.
The sources hinted that the military favoured an extension of the state of emergency in the three states.
President Jonathan first imposed the martial rule on the states on May 2013, and renewed it for another six months, which expired last Friday.
In Yola and other towns in Adamawa State, reactions to the end of the emergency rule and its possible renewal were influenced by political party affiliations.
While members of the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP supported its extension, those of the APC opposed it.
The PDP members expressed fears that the withdrawal of soldiers from the state would spell doom for it. For the APC members, they argued that nothing has changed. One of them said: “We are of the firm belief that insurgency escalated with the coming of the martial rule”.
“The emergency rule has significantly deescalated attacks on worship centres. The last time a gun was fired in Yola metropolis was on Friday, May 10 preceding May 15, 2013 when President Jonathan first proclaimed the state of emergency,” the PDP stated.
But APC argued that the emergency dispensation had created a wide gap between Christian and Muslim relations.
Since last Friday when the emergency rule expired, most residents in Maiduguri metropolis, the Borno State capital and Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, have continued to express fears over what would happen in the two states after today’s meeting.
Some residents said with the kidnap of female students and recurring attacks, the government should look for another alternative to the emergency rule option.
Others argued that it remained the most viable security arrangement and urged the Federal Government to extend it.
In an interview with the Nigerian Pilot in Maiduguri, a civil servant, Bukar Maina said that “the extension of state of emergency rule in the North-East zone is political because the people of the state have now been labelled “Boko Haram members.”
Source: Nigerian Pilot
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