Keyamo: Security breaches not yardstick to say FG has failed

August 5, 2022 9:50 pm

Festus Keyamo, minister of state for labour and employment, says “security breaches” in parts of country cannot be used as a “yardstick” to say the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government has failed.

Keyamo spoke on Friday an interview with Channels Television.

Over the past weeks, the spate of violent attacks has increased in parts of the country, with the federal capital territory (FCT) recording attacks.

In July, there was an attack on the correctional centre in Kuje council area in the FCT, while troops of the presidential guard brigade were killed when they ran into an ambush by gunmen in the FCT.

Speaking on the development, Keyamo said the Buhari-led government did not promise that the country will not witness violent attacks, adding that the government only promised to respond well.

“Last week, those who were gathering around the bushes of Abuja have been raided, flushed out and killed,” he said.

“That is what we promised. We promised response. We did not promise that it won’t happen. We promised response. We responded last week and killed them.

“Abuja is safe now. There is no incident like that around the bushes of Abuja again. We promised response and we have delivered response.

“People should not engage in scare mongering. Let me tell you something about the psychology of the bandits. They want to scare people. Their oxygen is fear. They want to create panic. It is the oxygen of the terrorists.

“It is only heaven — when we arrive heaven — that there will be no security breach at all. We have not arrived heaven. We are on earth; there must be security breaches. We have responded well.

“There are security breaches, regrettably, but that is not a yardstick to say government has failed. There are jailbreaks in America. The most secured place in the world, there are jailbreaks.

“In the western world, there are jailbreaks. Unfortunately, I’m not proud of it. The optics are not good. I’m not justifying it. It is the spin people put around it in Nigeria that I want to correct.”