Nigerian president declares security emergency in the country
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has declared a security emergency in the country, ordering police to recruit 20,000 personnel, bringing the total number to 50,000.
A statement issued by the Nigerian president on Wednesday said Tinubu had given permission to Nigeria’s domestic intelligence agency to immediately deploy all trained forest rangers to eliminate terrorists and bandits who are holed up in our forests.
“The Nigeria’s domestic intelligence has also been instructed to recruit more men to monitor the forests,” he said.
“Mosques and churches must systematically be protected by the police and other security forces when praying, especially in vulnerable areas,” he said.
Nigeria’s president recently ordered the redirecting of police officers responsible for VIP security to carry out basic policing duties, with about a quarter of all security officers protecting politicians and their families.
Nigeria has recently witnessed the abduction of hundreds of people, including more than 300 students and teachers from a Catholic school in the Babiri area of Niger state in the central west of the country, and dozens of them were later freed.
