The meeting, to be held in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, from Sunday is expected to discuss strategies to protect mosques which have become targets of the Boko Haram insurgents.
The embarrassing rise in attacks and the heavy casualty also forced the Presidency to hurriedly despatch a delegation to commiserate with the regional governments of Borno and Adamawa.
No fewer than 66 people were killed between Thursday and Friday in suicide attacks on mosques in Borno and Adamawa states.
The embattled Borno government has attributed the increase in suicide attacks to the dislodgment of insurgents from their enclaves.
Soft spots
The insurgents no longer have formidable bases to fight the military and have resorted to suicide attacks on soft spots.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s warned that though insurgents would be defeated by December, the suicide attacks could continue.
Borno Governor Alhaji Kashim Shettima, revealed that the Boko Haram insurgents had lost much ground, with the terrorists’ area of control dropping from 20 local governments to just two.
Alhaji Shettima’s disclosure came as the Nigerian military confirmed dislodgment of Boko Haram fighters from their enclaves in the northeast.
The governor received the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr David Lawan, who led a six-man committee inaugurated by President Buhari to convey condolence messages on visits to Borno and Adamawa.
The governor said the recent attacks in Borno should not be misconstrued as an act of authority of the insurgents, but rather as noise aimed at attracting attention.
New arrivals
The insurgents, he said, were presently on the run because they no longer had a stronghold.
“They are presently controlling Abadam and Mobbar local governments and partially in Marte,” he said; and insisted that the bombings in recent times were only to show to the world that the terrorists were still around.
President Buhari has urged communities in Adamawa and Borno to . an active role in security of their localities.
A statement by Malam Shehu Garba, the president’s Senior Special Assistant media adviser in Abuja on Sunday, said Buhari tipped the communities to revert to old practices by which new arrivals were screened.
Having the knowledge of new arrivals into communities, he said, could help prevent suicide bombers from entering to carry out their nefarious acts.
“The intention of the enemy is to create widespread fear amongst the civilian population since he cannot subdue our armed forces,’’ he said.
The president explained that the sporadic tactics used by the criminals were signs that they were under intense pressure in the forests and in the countryside where they previously enjoyed a lot of freedom.
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