Buhari directs security agencies to ‘immediately’ rescue Nigerians in captivity

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed security agencies to rescue persons kidnapped during the Kaduna train attack and others still in captivity.

A kaduna-bound train on March 28 was attacked by gunmen with eight passengers killed and many kidnapped.

Since the Kaduna train attack, the spate of violent attacks has continued unabated, especially in the northern part of the country.

Buhari on Thursday met with the service chiefs, ministers and heads of security agencies over the security challenges.

Speaking after the meeting, Babagana Munguno, national security adviser, said the president has ordered that the security of the land borders be tightened in a bid to address the rising insecurity.

“Mr. President has directed all the operational and intelligence elements to rescue these innocent people immediately and unhurt,” he said.

“This is the basis, on which other issues were discussed. Obviously, the chief of defense staff and the service chiefs, as well as the inspector-general of police, all briefed the president on the occurrences in their respective organisations.

“I submitted a memo to the council and my recommendations are being looked into by the president. My recommendations are wide-ranging and they touch on all aspects of security, starting with the level of security of our land borders, as well as within the country itself.

“A lot of lives are being lost, the president is not happy about this situation, he has made it very clear.

“The first assignment he has given to the security agencies, especially the armed forces and the police is to rescue those that are in captivity, not just those that were captured during the last train incident, but those that have been in captivity in other parts of the country. That is the first thing that has to be done.”

On the deployment of technology to tackle insecurity, Monguno said the federal government is making efforts to know the processes of the acquisition of the needed technology.

“One, technology is expensive. Technology takes time to acquire these things. Since inherently we do not produce this very, very delicate equipment,” he added.

“It’s not as if the government is not making any effort to acquire but we need to know who to acquire this technology from, where, when and there are certain processes.”