Pascal Arogorn Ibe
The Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd.), on Thursday, said the Federal Government knew that the killing of Chad’s President, Idriss Deby, was capable of causing security problems for Nigeria and other neighbouring countries.
He said the government has therefore decided to beef up security at the country’s borders to stop the influx of refugees.
Magashi spoke at the Presidential Villa, Abuja during the weekly briefing organised by the presidential communication team.
He said, “When we heard of this unfortunate killing of the Chadian President, we knew that problem is bound to be replicated among neigbouring countries and Nigeria will be most hit by his absence.
“If there is insecurity in Chad, there will be a lot of problems. But thank God, we have a lot of military activities with the Chadian, Niger, Cameroon, we have all that military concern.
” So, in the name of that multinational Joint Task Force, all these countries, including Chad, are contributing soldiers for the operation.
“We hope that very soon, we will find a secure way for the continuation of the activities we are supposed to be doing.
“The problem is now going to be aggravated because we are not sure the direction in which that country is going to face.
“But I assure you that we are mindful of our borders, we are mindful of the development, and politically, the government is putting its head together to see how best they can restore the peace in that country.
“So security-wise, we are beefing up all borders to ensure that refugees do not flow into a country.”
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