President Goodluck Appoints National Security Adviser
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan appointed a new national security adviser on Monday, three days after twin car bombs exploded near an independence day parade in the capital Abuja.
Jonathan named one-time chief of defence staff Andrew Azazi to the post following the resignation last month of Aliyu Gusau, who stepped aside to challenge Jonathan for the ruling party ticket in presidential elections next year.
“(Azazi) takes over from Kayode Are who until now was the acting National Security Adviser,” the presidency said in a statement.
Azazi’s appointment comes after Friday’s car bomb attacks near a parade to mark Nigeria’s 50th anniversary of independence, which killed at least 10 people.
The bombs were claimed by the Movement of the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the main militant group in Nigeria’s oil industry heartland, but Jonathan has said a small group based outside Nigeria carried out the attacks.
He has vowed to hunt down those responsible.
South African prosecutors brought terrorism charges against Nigerian militant leader Henry Okah, long a senior figure in MEND who now lives in Johannesburg, on Monday and the Nigerian secret service said it had made nine arrests. (Reporting by Felix Onuah; writing by Nick Tattersall; editing by Andrew Roche)
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