The National Security Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, Major General Babagana Mongunu (rtd.) has said that Nigeria will not be blackmailed, undermined or manipulated by any individual or entity into compromising the current exercise by the joint security patrol team at the borders in the four geopolitical zones of the country codenamed Ex-Swift Response.
Mongunu who stated this at the commissioning of the two sea going vessels procured by Nigeria Customs Service in Lagos recently stated that this is more important as government had started bringing a lot of the elements that had been engaged in smuggling activities to their knees
He maintained that the federal government would at the same time encourage the very great agencies and their staff who had been doing a fantastic job in securing the borders of the country and protecting the citizens of the country from those dangerous elements.
In his words, “The issue of making compromise is a thing of the past; I just want to make that clear. With the support of the President, there is nothing like compromising or negotiating with any group, no matter the amount of money that is involved, that is not the consideration, the consideration is one, the lives of our citizenry and two, the economy of this country. I want to stress that the armed forces and indeed the intelligence agencies are well aware of this overwhelming responsibility and will continue with the great strides that are being made already especially by the Nigeria Customs Service.
“We will not relent in making our neighbours to understand that we owe a duty to the citizens of this country to protect them from the vicious nature of smuggling activities.”
The NSA revealed that one of the key cardinal issues that President Buhari was concerned with since he took over office in 2015 had been securing the country.
“Apart from reviving the ailing economy and dealing with issues of corruption, security had been a great concern to him (Buhari) and he has always asked me to give all support I can especially to organizations that are doing very well like your (Customs) organization and I am also happy that the Nigerian Navy has been of tremendous assistance to the NCS and I must say as the National Security Adviser that I have always been briefed by the Chief of Naval Staff in all the activities concerning his own area of responsibility and it has been very encouraging that result has been coming out.
“From where I operate, I see a lot of things, I know that the wider society is bogged by issues of insecurity and when we talk of insecurity, we tend to sway towards insurgency, banditry and other activities that are more visible and violent in nature but I need to emphasize that there are other aspects of insecurity that are not readily be visible to ordinary person on the street that probably are even more dangerous than the ones we confront on daily basis and smuggling is one of those activities.
“The level of criminality, the level of insolence, impudence and disregard for the statutes has been so great that we are determined to ensure that we deal with these problems not only in a methodical manner but also in collaboration with all agencies of government as well as the private sector.
“The amount of harmful products coming into this country, small arms and light weapons as well as other toxic materials have resulted in displacing a large number of our population and it is our resolve to make sure that we give all the support we can to institutions like the Nigeria Customs Service and I want to make it very clear that Operation Swift Response which is being conducted right now and anti-smuggling operations which has been going on for a couple of week now and it is also the first of its kind, has been extremely successful”, he noted.
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