Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
The federal government has described as false alarms the speculations in some quarters alleging that it was having discussion with the US and French governments on the siting of foreign military bases in the country.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, categorically denied such talks in a statement Monday.
He also urged the general public to totally disregard the speculation as falsehood.
“The Federal Government is not in any such discussion with any foreign country. We have neither received nor are we considering any proposals from any country on the establishment of any foreign military bases in Nigeria.
The Nigerian government already enjoys foreign cooperation in tackling ongoing security challenges, and the President remains committed to deepening these partnerships, with the goal of achieving the national security objectives of the Renewed Hope Agenda,” Idris said.
The rebuttal was on the heels of the letter which some Northern leaders wrote to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Assembly over the weekend, warning the federal government not to allow the relocation of American and French military bases from the Sahel to Nigeria.
The letter was signed by Northern leaders including, Abubakar Siddique Mohammed of the Centre for Democratic Development, Research and Training (CEDDERT) Zaria; Kabiru Sulaiman Chafe of Arewa Research and Development Project (ARDP) Kaduna, Attahiru Muhammadu Jega of Bayero University, Kano, Jibrin Ibrahim of Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) Abuja, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) Abuja and Y. Z. Ya’u of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD).
They raised alarm that American and French governments had been desperately lobbying the governments of Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana to agree to a new defence pacts that would enable them to redeploy their soldiers expelled from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to any of the Gulf of Guinea countries.
They warned Nigeria against being pressured to compromise its sovereignty by harbouring these foreign troops who would come to serve the interests of NATO to the detriment of the national interests and security of the countries of the Gulf of Guinea.
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