By Ahmed Idris
President Muhamamdu Buhari on Thursday had a close-door meeting heads of security agencies in the country as part of efforts to address persistent security challenges.
Those who attended the meeting were National Security Adviser (NSA), Mr. Babagana Monguno, Minister of Defence, Mr Mansur Mohammed Dan-Ali; Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Gabriel Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas; Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Kpotu Idris; and the Director General of National Intelligence Agency, Mr. Ahmed Rufai Abubakar.
Mr. Mansur Mohammed Dan-Ali, told journalists that heads of security agencies were mandated at the meeting to urgently tackle the propagation of hate speech through the use of social media, especially by some prominent citizens.
He said the meeting also discussed the stringent conditions imposed on Nigeria by the United States government on the sale of 12 Super Tucano A29 planes and other weapons worth $495 million.
The minister said US government insists that payment for the military aircrafts must be made by February 20, 2018, and that the aircrafts can only be available in 2020.
According to him, US government has also forbidden Nigerian personnel from understudying the production of the aircrafts as Nigeria had done in the case of other countries.
He said the meeting also approved that the Ministry of Defence meets with the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Stuart Symington, to iron out the contending issues.
“The contract include cost which is $494 million to acquire the Super Tucano A29 plans as well as training, where the facilities will be accommodated and continuous servicing among others. Some of the stringent measures include that we will start having them from 2020, which is two years from now.
“They are also thinking of not allowing our technicians to be part of the production inspection. But this is what we normally do in all the defence contracts, we send our personnel to go and understudy especially when it comes to specialized aircrafts like in Russia, our personnel are permanently based in where the production is being done for this MI35 helicopters,” he said.
