8 January 2010
Nigerian VP Presides Over Security Meeting
ABUJA, Nigeria
Vice President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday presided over Nigeria’s first security meeting in 2010 at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Presidency sources revealed that the meeting involved all top security chiefs and key ministers, and especially dwelt on the attempt by 23 year old Nigerian Farouk al-Muttallab to carry out a suicide bombing of an American airliner last Christmas.
The security meeting came in the continued absence of President Umaru Yar’Adua, who is under treatment abroad for a heart ailment.
President Yar’Adua left Nigeria on 23 November 2009 and is being treated at a clinic in Saudi Arabia. He has not been seen in public and concerns have been brewing over a possible leadership vacuum due to his absence. [PE]