INSECURITY: ‘Armed Forces Doing It Right’— NSA Brags As Over 1,995 Nigerians Died Between July-Sept

The National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu on Monday said the armed forces were doing things right to achieve a “change” within five months of its leadership.

He disclosed this while speaking at the 2023 edition of the Chief of Defence Intelligence annual conference on Monday.

The conference with the theme, ‘Leveraging defence diplomacy and effective regional collaboration for enhanced national security’ witnessed the NSA, eulogised the armed forces for its successful feat against insecurity.

He said, “They have done an amazingly good job without talking and I believe that with the support and the resolve of the leadership we have today in our country, things will only be better.

“We are just four or five months old, but certainly things have changed and we believe that what they are doing, they are doing it right.”

The NSA said the armed forces, under President Bola Tinubu, have shown commitment to addressing the security challenges ravaging the country.

However, data from SBM Intelligence, a risk assessment and security think tank showed that between July and September, over 1,995 Nigerians were killed by non-state actors.

Also, no fewer than 129 security operatives comprising the Nigeria Police, NSCDC, Customs and Soldiers out of the total number were killed within the period under review.

The data revealed that 38 of those killed were police officers and 85 were soldiers.

The North East recorded the highest number of fatalities with 837 people killed in the region. The North Central followed with 444 fatalities and the North West came third on the rank.

The South South recorded 123, The South East recorded 122 while the South West recorded 74.

While these numbers do not downplay the efforts of the armed forces within the period under review, security experts who have spoken to THE WHISTLER said the security situation across the country is likely to worsen as the year comes to an end, given the upsurge of attacks across the nation’s geopolitical regions.

However, the NSA said the Federal Government will consistently “stand by them and support them 100 per cent and hopefully this country will be okay in a short time.”