•Says 13,543 terrorists killed, 124,408 surrendered in two years  

•Discloses oil exploration to resume in Ogoniland 30 years after

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, yesterday said the federal government and security services in the country had substantially decimated multi-faceted security challenges inherited by the Bola Tinubu administration.

The NSA said that through combined security efforts, atrocities such as mass killings, wanton destruction, mass abductions and terrorist attacks on government installations had been contained.

Speaking at the All Progressives Congress (APC)  National Summit to mark the two years of the Tinubu administration, the NSA said the administration inherited five interractible crises across the country.

He revealed that as a sign of security improvement, oil exploration will soon resume in Ogoniland, Rivers state, nearly 30 years after the disruption of production in the area.

“For us to appreciate where we are today, it’s important to reflect on where we were before the coming of this administration on May 29, 2023,” Ribadu said.

He recalled that terrorists had a field day up until 2022 when Nigeria witnessed attacks on the Abuja-Kaduna train, attack on Kuje Prison, a church in Owo and an army battalion in Bwari, Abuja.

He listed the inherited security challenges to include:  Boko Haram in the North-east, armed banditry in the North-west, secessionist agitations by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the South-east, Niger Delta unrest in the South-south and communal conflicts/herder-farmer conflicts especially in the North-central.

Ribadu explained that before 2023 over 35,000 and 12,000 persons were claimed by the Boko Haram and banditry crises, respectively, while millions of people were rendered homeless in the affected areas.

The NSA said that with the security agencies working as a team, challenges such as the sit-at-home in the South-east and sabotage of oil installations in the Niger Delta had been substantially addressed.

Besides, Ribadu said that over 13,543 Boko Haram elements were neutralised in the past two years while over 11,000 arms were recovered and destroyed from the terrorists.

According to him, 124,408 Boko Haram fighters and their families surrendered to troops since the coming of the current administration, stressing that despite some setbacks, operations were ongoing in Tumbuktu Triangle, Tumbu islands and other enclaves, to smoke out the insurgents.

In his remarks, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio,  thanked the  president for tackling security challenges in the country. He noted that the president had been able to streamline and strengthen internal security nationwide.

The senate president stated that there are no longer cases of terrorists taking over territories and hoisting of alien flags by Boko Haram in the country.

Also speaking while moving a vote of confidence to adopt the president as sole candidate of the party in 2027 at the event, the Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, who spoke on behalf of the 22 governors of the party, acknowledged that in spite of the complexity of the security challenges “progress is evident”.