The United Kingdom has promised to provide kits on counter improvised explosive Devices (IEDs) worth one million pounds to boost the fight against insurgency, NAN reports. The United Kingdom’s Minister of Armed Forces, Mark Lancaster, revealed this when he met with Nigeria’s Defence Minister, Mansur Dan-Ali, in London on the sidelines of the concluded Commonwealth meeting.
According to Lancaster, the gift is part of the collaboration between the two nations to combat terrorism. According to him “it’s in both the UK and Nigeria’s interest that we tackle the issue of terrorism in Nigeria”
The two defence chiefs expressed hope that the kits would be helpful in foiling bomb attack by Boko Haram on innocent Nigerians.
Speaking also, the Defence Minister said talks were held about terrorism, training of the Nigerian military and other global security issues. He further disclosed that apart from security issues, Nigeria is also said to be receiving positive responses from prospective investors regarding doing business in Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Ambassador to the UK, George Oguntade who also spoke, said that the recent feedbacks from investors were encouraging. He disclosed that the process of obtaining Nigerian Visa has been made more effective, stressing that visas could now be processed in only a matter of days as the delays that characterised the process in the past have been eliminated.
“We had a list of applicants that ran into thousands and that created a bad feeling between applicants for passports and the High Commission. So much so that they were almost throwing stones at us here.
“But we immediately took control of the problems, ascertained what the problems were and set to work to eliminate them and thank God we have succeeded.”