Sunday 12 May 2013

No Plans To Declare State Of Emergency – Presidency


The presidency yesterday spurned report that the federal government was considering to declare a state of emergency in five states in the country following the plethora of killings that have turned the some parts of the country to a pool of blood.

Report in the media yesterday had it that following the gruesome killings in Borno, Yobe, Nassarawa and Benue States, government plans to declare a state of emergency in those states.

But Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati said last night that the report was not true, as the federal government was yet to decide on the next step to take on the states where the killings and wanton destruction of property took place.




Maintaining that no such decision had been taken, Abati said, “no such decision has been taken and people should stop speculating. The federal government is studying the situations in the affected states and would take a decision that would be in the overall interest of the security of not just the people of the states affected by the country”.

This clarification, according to the presidential spokesman, became necessary due to “the wide speculation in a section of the media which does not reflect government thinking at the moment”.

The report in a national daily had linked federal government decision to declare a state of emergency to deal with the security menace to the outcome of the meeting between President Jonathan and the security chiefs on friday to review the security situation in Nassarawa, Benue and Borno states where more than 80 security personnel and civilians were killed by suspected cultists.

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