TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday held a closed-door meeting with service chiefs at the Defence House, Abuja.

The meeting, which is in connection with the insurgency in the northeast, held ahead of the Lake Chad Basin Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday.

Sambo Dasuki, national security adviser; Alex Badeh, chief of defence staff; Usman Jibrin, chief of naval staff, Ismail Aliyu, permanent secretary, ministry of defence were in attendance.

Kenneth Minimah, chief of army staff and Adesola Amosu, chief of air staff, who are in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, to assess the military command centre, which was recently relocated there, were represented.

Briefing reporters at the end of the meeting, Aliyu said contributions of member states to the operationalisation of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF) was the major issue of discussion.

“We discussed the issue of the operationalistion of the Multinational Joint Task Force and the citing of its headquarters in N’Djamena and the contribution from various states,” he said.

“This is with the objective of fighting the insurgency within that region. Some issues came out that the president identified, he wants us to see the end of this fight for the purpose of peace, security and prosperity of the region.”

Meanwhile, Sanusi Imran Abdullahi, head of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, has said that the sum of $30 million would be required in setting up a base for MTJF.

“The total amount required to set up and sustain the MNJTF headquarters for the next 12 months is about $30 million (27 million euros),” he said in Abuja on Wednesday.

“The troop-contributing countries are responsible for equipping and sustenance of their battalion.”

Abdullahi appealed to Nigeria and other regional groupings to contribute resources to the fight against insurgency.