By Ahmed Idris
The Minister of Defence, Mr. Mansur Dan-Ali, has stressed the need for the suspension of anti-grazing law that is currently being in enforced in Taraba and Benue states.
In a presentation at a security meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday, the minister said the states should employ other channels to deal with farmers and herdsmen crisis.
The minister called on the State Security Service (SSS) and the police to prosecute all suspects arrested in connection with the violence and killings that have trailed the farmers and herdsmen clashes in the country.
He also called for the establishment of what he referred to as National Commission on the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons in Nigeria.
The minister also stressed the need for the establishment of a joint Task Force Operation similar to Operation Safe Heaven in Jos, Plateau to cover Zamfara and Birni Gwari axis of Kaduna state with headquarters in Gusau, Zamfara state.
He said the meeting considered the killings and kidnapping in the North-west, particularly along Abuja-Kaduna express way even as the service chiefs reviewed the activities of armed bandits other criminal elements in Anka, Maru, Kauran Namoda and Talatan Mafara of Zamfara state.
The minister said he informed the meeting that the United States of America conveyed to the government of Nigeria about the implementation of Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act Section 231.
“It is pertinent to state that the award of contract for the procurement of the Mi-35M helicopters was completed before the act was signed into law in August 2017,” he said.
He said the Nigerian Army has launched Operations Last Hold to flush out the insurgents from their hideouts in Lake Chad Basin and free communities to enable IDPs to return to their homes, adding that the operation would last till the end of August 2018.
Those who attended at the meeting were the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mr. Babagana Monguno; Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Mr. Ahmed Rufai Abubakar; Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Abubakar Sadique; and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Ibrahim Kpotu Idris, among others.
