The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has said that security challenges in Nigeria do not justify that the President Muhammadu Buhari led government has failed.
Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), stated this while appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ on Friday.
According to him, all over the world including most secured countries such as the U.S., there are security breaches so Nigeria’s case is no different.
He said, “It is only in heaven where there will be no security breaches. We are not in heaven yet.
“There are jailbreaks in America, but that doesn’t mean Government has failed,” Keyamo stressed.
The minister said the All Progressives Congress (APC) didn’t promise Nigerians that there would never be insecurity but that when such security breaches occurred there would be an adequate response.
Keyamo claimed that all the terrorists that carried out attacks in the suburbs of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) including those that attacked the Presidential Guards Brigade had been neutralised.
“Last week those who were gathering around bushes of Abuja, they were raided and flushed out and killed; that is what we promised. We promised response. We did not promise that it will not happen. We promised response and we responded last week. We killed them and Abuja is safe now.
“There will be no incident of such around the bushes of Abuja again. We promised response and we have delivered response. People should not engage in scaremongering. Let me tell you about the psychology of bandits -they want to scare people. Their oxygen is fear, scaremongering, they want to create panic. That is the oxygen of the terrorists.
“When you don’t give them that oxygen of fear, of panic or publicity, they will filter a way, and so when you heard there is one security breach around the areas of Abuja, and the press will blow it the next day.
“It is only in heaven that there will be no security breach at all and we have not arrived in heaven. We are on earth so there must be security breaches. So I’m telling you that we have responded well,” Keyamo stressed.
On the threats by bandits to abduct President Buhari, the 2023 APC Presidential Campaign Organisation spokesperson said such matter is not a national concern.
He described the people issuing threats to kidnap the President as “mad men.”
Keyamo, who stated that anybody could make such kidnap threat, insisted that does not call for national concern.
“So you mean that people will sit down somewhere and say they will kidnap the President and that will become a national concern? I can as well say so as a mad person. Have they also the capacity to do that? How can we elevate that to a national discussion? That is exactly what they intend you to say and that is how they intend you to react and you are reacting that way, that they sit down and threatened Mr President. These are comedians,” he said.
On the recent invasion of the Kuje medium custodial centre, in Abuja by terrorists, the minister said that was part of security breach.
“It is a security breach; will it happen again? Will government respond appropriately? They will respond. There are security breaches all over the world regrettably but that is not a yardstick to say that government has failed.
“There are jailbreaks in America, the most secured place in the world. In the Western world, there are jailbreaks unfortunately I am not proud of it,” said Keyamo.
