President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday convened a top-level security meeting with service chiefs and leaders of intelligence agencies at the State House, Abuja, amid rising worries over the nation’s security climate.
The closed-door engagement, characterised as an emergency session, had in attendance the Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede; the Chief of Army, Lt. Gen Waidi Shaibu; the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Idi Abbas; the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sunday Anele; the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Oluwatosin Ajayi; the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Mohammed Mohammed, and the Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu.
Also in attendance was the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, along with other senior security officials at the State House.
The meeting follows recent developments, including a travel advisory released by the United States Department of State approving the voluntary departure of non-essential government staff and their families from its embassy in Abuja.
The advisory, issued on April 8, pointed to what it termed a “deteriorating security situation” and placed 23 of Nigeria’s 36 states under a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” classification, the highest warning level. Newly affected states include Plateau, Jigawa, Kwara, Niger, and Taraba.
US authorities cited threats ranging from insurgency in the Northeast to banditry in the Northwest and North-Central, alongside ongoing violence in parts of the South and Southeast, including oil-producing areas.
The embassy later halted visa appointments in Abuja, though its Lagos consulate continues to provide both routine and emergency services.
Responding, the Federal Government described the advisory as a standard precaution guided by US internal procedures, maintaining that it does not reflect the overall security situation across the country.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said while isolated incidents persist, “there is no general breakdown of law and order, and the vast majority of the country remains stable.”
The emergency security session is also coming amid the aftermath of a controversial Nigerian Air Force airstrike in Borno State that allegedly left more than 100 civilians dead.
The strike, which occurred on Saturday at Jilli Market along the Borno-Yobe border, was aimed at suspected Boko Haram positions.
While the Nigerian Air Force confirmed conducting “precision mop-up airstrikes on identified terrorist locations” in the Jilli axis, it neither acknowledged civilian casualties nor confirmed that a market was struck.
The Presidency, however, defended the action, stating that the location had been infiltrated by insurgents.
Meanwhile, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Tope Ajayi, revealed that the market had become “a legitimate military target” after Boko Haram and ISWAP fighters turned it into a logistics and trading hub.
