He said his party didn't promise Nigerians that there would never be insecurity or security breaches.
The Nigerian Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr Festus Keyamo on Friday said the exacerbating insecurity across the country is not enough to say that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has failed.
Keyamo, the spokesperson for the presidential campaign organisation of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 general elections, stated this while featuring on a Channels Television programme on Friday, monitored by SaharaReporters. According to him, all over the world including most secured countries such as the United States of America, there are security breaches so Nigeria's case is no different.
He said his party didn't promise Nigerians that there would never be insecurity or security breaches but that when such security breaches occurred there would be an adequate response.
He boasted that all the terrorists that carried out attacks in the suburbs of Abuja including those that attacked the Presidential Guards Brigade had been neutralised.
He said, "Last week those who were gathering around bushes of Abuja, they were raided and flushed out and killed; that is what we promised. We promised response. We did not promise that it will not happen. We promised response and we responded last week. We killed them and Abuja is safe now.
"There will be no incident of such around the bushes of Abuja again. We promised response and we have delivered response. People should not engage in scaremongering. Let me tell you about the psychology of bandits -they want to scare people. Their oxygen is fear, scaremongering, they want to create panic. That is the oxygen of the terrorists.
"When you don't give them that oxygen of fear, of panic or publicity, they will filter a way, and so when you heard there is one security breach around the areas of Abuja, and the press will blow it the next day.
"It is only in heaven that there will be no security breach at all and we have not arrived in heaven. We are on earth so there must be security breaches. So I'm telling you that we have responded well."
On why the government had to wait for attacks to happen before responding especially regarding the threats made by terrorists to kidnap the President, the minister described the threats as mere comedy.
He said, "So you mean that people will sit down somewhere and say they will kidnap the President and that will become a national concern? I can as well say so as a mad person. Have they also the capacity to do that? How can we elevate that to a national discussion? That is exactly what they intend you to say and that is how they intend you to react and you are reacting that way, that they sit down and threatened Mr President. These are comedians," he said.
On the recent invasion of the Kuje Correctional Centre Abuja by terrorists, he said that was part of security breach. "It is a security breach; will it happen again? Will government respond appropriately? They will respond. There are security breaches all over the world regrettably but that is not a yardstick to say that government has failed.
"There are jailbreaks in America, the most secured place in the world. In the Western world, there are jailbreaks unfortunately I am not proud of it."