President Muhammadu Buhari has said that with elections over, he will now have more time to face the threat of terrorism in the country.
A statement issued on Saturday by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity), quoted him as saying at a bilateral meeting with President Idris Deby Itno of Chad Republic in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, that since elections were over, he would have more time to pursue the threat of terrorism with “full force.”
The president was there to attend the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit.
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The statement announced that Buhari will host leaders of Lake Chad Basin Commission in an informal summit on the sidelines of Democracy Day and Second Term inauguration celebrations on June 12, 2019, in Abuja.
It said the meeting will focus on bringing up new strategies to end the menace of Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region.
President Buhari said it was time for “a new way forward that completely removes the threat of terrorism from Lake Chad sub-region.”
He and the Chadian leader agreed on the need for sub-regional leaders to sit down and agree on changing the strategy “for a more sustained operation, which will continue until the threat is brought to a permanent end.’’
Both leaders also discussed the challenge posed by rainy season to military operations against terrorism, agreeing to urgently review strategies that will bolster onslaught against insurgents.
According to the statement, the two talked about how the meeting in Abuja will respond to infiltration of displaced elements of the Daesh, an acronym for ISIL’s Arabic name, al-Dawlah al-Islamīyah fī l-ʻIrāq wa-sh-Shām, through Libya into the Lake Chad area.
