August 27, 2021

A former Minister of State for  Defence, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, has called for international support and action in the wake of Tuesday’s attack at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna.

“The international community must rally round Nigeria to give us support and although we alone cannot do it alone, we must do our best.

“We must show that we can help ourselves, we must show commitment,’’

Some yet-to-be apprehended gunmen stormed the residential quarters of the NDA, killed two people and abducted a military officer in the attack.

Kayode, in an interview on Thursday in Akure, said the attack on one of the military’s “most sacred places“ called for an urgent action to tackle the security challenges facing the country.

The former minister, who described the attack as “very unfortunate and embarrassing“, said the security issue had become a recurring one and called on the international community to help Nigeria.

“The attack at the NDA is very unfortunate and embarrassing but more importantly I feel so sad because of the young men who lost their lives and one other who was kidnapped.

“Security challenges are not peculiar to Nigeria and Africa; they are all over the world but this (the attack at the NDA) is going too far,’’ he said.

He urged the Federal Government and security agencies to rejig their approach to the tackling of security matters.

“Government must rejig its strategy about how to tackle this as it has gone too far and I believe that something has to be done because the NDA is a very sacred place for us.

“The whole world now must understand the kind of challenges Nigeria is passing through now, we need support, every country gets support for security.

“The international community must rally round Nigeria to give us support and although we alone cannot do it alone, we must do our best.

“We must show that we can help ourselves, we must show commitment,’’ the former defence minister said.  (NAN)