TheCable

President Goodluck Jonathan has reiterated his optimism that activities of Boko Haram and other border-related crimes will soon be curtailed.

Speaking in Abuja, during a security summit with ministers of defence and foreign affairs of Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin Republic, Jonathan said collaboration with neighbouring countries would boost the security situation in the country.

“I am quite pleased with the decisions we took in Niamey to enhance and boost joint actions against Boko Haram and other cross-border criminals because we have to work together to defeat Boko Haram and other extremist groups in our sub-region,” he said.

“I believe that if we cooperate more and monitor our borders closely, the movement of criminals and terrorists as well as small arms and ammunition across our shared borders will also be drastically reduced.

“With operations and intelligence sharing by Nigeria and neighbouring countries, the activities of insurgents and other cross-border criminals will soon be drastically curtailed.”

Jonathan said he expected the visiting ministers and their Nigerian counterparts to come up with an effective action plan for the successful implementation of the decisions reached at the earlier summit, which held on October 7.

The decisions, which were agreed to be implemented between November 1 and November 20, are: deployment of troops by member states to form the multinational force within their national borders and also having a command centre for a multinational force.

Mohammed Bazoun, Niger’s minister of foreign affairs; Pierre Moukoko Mbonjo, Cameroon’s minister of external relations; Benaindo Tatola, Chad’s minister of defence, Muossa Faki Mahamat, Chad’s minister of foreign affairs; K. Mahamadou, Niger’s minister of defence; Robert Yarou, Benin’s minister of defence, Nassirou Bako Arifari, Benin’s minister of foreign affairs; and Edgar Alain Debe Ngo’o, Cameroon’s minister of defence were in attendance.