Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo has said that the Muhammadu Buhari administration did not promise that violent attacks on the citizenry would not occur.
He said that the government only promised a “response” when such attacks occur.
Keyamo made the assertion on Friday during an interview on Channels Television.
He was responding to a question on the spate of attacks by non-state actors on citizens and security agents, including a July incident in the FCT where gunmen ambushed and killed some troops of the Presidential Guards Brigade.
“Last week, those who were gathering around the bushes of Abuja have been raided, flushed out and killed.
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“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,” Keyamo said.
The minister explained that security should not be used as the only “yardstick” to gauge the incumbent administration’s performance.
Keyamo added, “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.”