Tackling insurgency, Buhari’s biggest achievement–Aregbesola

By Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja with agency report

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, on Tuesday, said the biggest achievement of the Muhammadu Buhari administration is its tackling of insurgency.

The minister stated this in Abuja at the fourth edition of the PMB Administration Scorecard 2015-2023 Series organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture.

The PMB Administration Scorecard initiative was launched as part of the efforts of the ministry to showcase the numerous achievements of the administration.

Aregbesola said the administration had successfully stopped insurgents from building strongholds, occupying territories and collecting taxes from the people as was the case before it took over.

“There is no insurgency stronghold anymore in Nigeria and that is the biggest achievement as you might want to understand it.

“Most people conveniently overlook that the fact that at the advent of this administration in 2015, local governments in their numbers were under the occupation of insurgents,

“But today, there is no single inch of Nigerian soil under the control of insurgents.

”This is the biggest achievement in terms of internal security,’’ he said.

The minister, who acknowledged that there were still challenges, added that they were surmountable.

According to him, there is no nation of the world without its own challenges and the Federal Government is working hard to address them, DailyTimesNGR gathered.

Furthermore, Aregbesola revealed that the Federal Government has concluded investigations into the attack on Kuje Correctional Centre in which 600 inmates escaped.

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Aregbesola however said that details of the investigation would not be made public, “as it is still a security document”.

The minister said some of the escapees had been recaptured and returned to the centre, while efforts were on to arrest other escapees.

Aregbesola assured that the challenges being encountered in the issuance of passport were being addressed.

“We don’t have enough processing and data capturing centres across the country. This is the major challenge.

“For example, we have only three centres in the whole of Lagos, but I can assure you that before this administration leaves by May 29, next year, Lagos will have 20 processing centres.

“We will open a processing centre in Daura, Oyo, Zaria, Alimosho, Defence Headquarters, Head of Service office, and one in the Ministry of Interior,’’ the minister said.

On the protection of the nation’s critical assets, he commended the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) for the wonderful job they have been doing.

Aregbesola said that the NSCDC has performed creditably well in monitoring and deployment of security before, during and after the conduct of every general election in the country.

“The service has also been involved in the protection of lives and property of Nigerians especially along the major expressways across the country.

“The NSCDC has also succeeded in establishing and training a special squad, popularly called ‘agro rangers’ whose responsibilities is to monitor and give protection to farmers in their various farms across the country,“ he said.

Aregbesola said that the Federal Government has established Fire Service Centres in the 36 states as well as zonal offices.

The minister added that the fire service had organised outreach programmes in the FCT on how to manage fire outbreaks and its impacts on lives and property.

“The service has succeeded to manage about 10, 659 fire outbreaks across the country that would have ordinarily resulted into serious casualties,’’ Aregbesola added.

This, feat he said, was achieved through the unflinching support of President Muhammadu Buhari who approved the procurement of world class fire equipment and recruitment of firemen.

The minister assured that the ministry remained committed to tackling any threat to the nation’s internal security.

Earlier, the minister gave the scorecards of the ministry and the four para- military agencies under his supervision.

The agencies are the Nigeria Correctional Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps as well as the Federal Fire Service.

He said the agencies performed well in the discharge of their statutory mandate and they remained committed to providing security for Nigerians.