President Bola Tinubu held a closed-door meeting with Nigeria’s service chiefs at the Aso Rock presidential villa in Abuja on Monday evening, in a move that underscores growing concern over the country’s security challenges.
The meeting, which began shortly after 6pm, saw the heads of the armed forces arrive at the villa’s forecourt before being ushered into the president’s office. It was Tinubu’s first formal engagement with the military high command since the swearing-in of the retired general Christopher Musa as minister of defence on 4 December.
While the presidency did not disclose the agenda, the talks come at a time of heightened anxiety over insecurity nationwide. Among the most pressing concerns is the continued captivity of 115 students abducted in November from a Catholic boarding school, alongside regional tensions following Nigeria’s senate approval of troop deployment to Benin Republic in the wake of an attempted coup there.
The meeting also coincided with fresh military action in the north-east. On 14 December, the Nigerian Air Force carried out what it described as precision air interdiction missions at Dabar Masara, a known terrorist enclave in the Southern Tumbuns of Borno state. The operation, led by the air component of Joint Task Force Operation Hadin Kai, targeted a workshop and several vehicles concealed under dense vegetation and identified as part of an active terrorist logistics hub.
In a statement, the air force spokesperson, Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, said post-strike assessments confirmed the destruction of the vehicles and the neutralisation of terrorist elements. He added that intelligence-driven air operations remained central to efforts to disrupt insurgent networks and stabilise the north-east.
The Southern Tumbuns – a vast expanse of marshland around Lake Chad – has long served as a refuge for militant groups. The military says combined air and ground operations are being sustained in the area to weaken insurgent capacity.
Elsewhere, troops under Joint Task Force Operation Enduring Peace have intensified operations in Kaduna and Plateau states. According to the task force spokesperson, Maj Samson Zhakom, a series of operations conducted between 11 and 13 December led to the killing of several kidnappers and the rescue of abducted victims.
On 11 December, soldiers carried out clearance operations in Dangoma and Godogodo villages in Jema’a local government area of Kaduna state, killing three alleged kidnappers while others escaped. A day later, a covert operation in Plateau state targeted a suspected kidnapper and gunrunner linked to crimes in Bassa and Jos North. The suspect was killed after opening fire on troops, with a pistol, ammunition, a dagger, a mobile phone and cash recovered.
On 13 December, intelligence-led action in Gidan-Saki village, Zangon Kataf LGA, forced suspected criminals to abandon a planned attack. The same day, an ambush in Jengre, Plateau state, following the abduction of four people in Rimi village, led to the rescue of all victims and the killing of one kidnapper. Troops recovered an AK-47 rifle, a magazine and 13 rounds of ammunition.
Zhakom said the task force remained committed to maintaining pressure on criminal groups and safeguarding civilians, as the federal government steps up efforts to rescue abducted citizens and dismantle criminal and terrorist networks across the country.
