President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan said Monday in Abuja that he was<\/p>\n
confident that with the intensification of joint patrols, military
\noperations and intelligence sharing by Nigeria and neighbouring countries
\nas agreed by their leaders in Niamey last week, the activities of
\ninsurgents and other cross-border criminals will soon be drastically
\ncurtailed.<\/p>\n
Welcoming the Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs of Chad, Niger,
\nCameroon and Benin Republic who are in Abuja to work with their Nigerian
\ncounterparts on a legal framework for the cross-border military operations
\napproved by him and neighbouring heads of state in Niamey, President
\nJonathan reiterated his belief that such collaboration was essential for
\nsuccess in the war against terrorism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am quite pleased with the decisions we took in Niamey to enhance and
\nboost joint actions against Boko Haram and other cross-border criminals
\nbecause we have to work together to defeat Boko Haram and other extremist
\ngroups in our sub-region.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that if we cooperate more and monitor our borders closely, the
\nmovement of criminals and terrorists as well as small arms and ammunition
\nacross our shared borders will also be drastically reduced,\u201d President
\nJonathan told the visiting Ministers who were accompanied to the
\nPresidential Villa by Nigeria\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador
\nAminu Wali and the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh.<\/p>\n
The President said that with their collective experience and
\nprofessionalism, he expected the visiting ministers and their Nigerian
\ncounterparts to come up with an effective action plan for the successful
\nimplementation of the decisions reached by the leaders of Nigeria, Chad,
\nNiger, Cameroon and Benin Republic at their meeting in Niamey on October
\n7, 2014.<\/p>\n
At that meeting, the leaders announced plans to step up the fight against
\nBoko Haram. A communiqu\u00e9 issued after the meeting said that a command
\ncentre for a multinational force headed by a chief of staff will be in
\nplace by November 20.<\/p>\n
The leaders also agreed to finalise the deployment of troops promised by
\nmember states to form the multinational force within their national
\nborders by November 1.<\/p>\n
The visiting ministers at the audience with President Jonathan were
\nNiger\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Mohammed Bazoun, Cameroon\u2019s
\nMinister of External Relations, Mr. Pierre Moukoko Mbonjo, Chad\u2019s Minister
\nof Defence, Mr. Benaindo Tatola, Chad\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs,
\nMuossa Faki Mahamat, Niger\u2019s Minister of Defence, Mr. K. Mahamadou,
\nBenin\u2019s Minister of Defence, Mr. Robert Yarou, Benin\u2019s Minister of Foreign
\nAffairs. Mr. Nassirou Bako Arifari and Cameroon\u2019s Minister of Defence, Mr.
\nEdgar Alain Debe Ngo’o.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan said Monday in Abuja that he was confident that with the intensification of joint patrols, military operations and intelligence sharing by Nigeria and neighbouring countries as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n