The Federal Government has said that the current insecurity has been the greatest challenge to the peace and security of Nigeria since the civil war.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said this in Abuja on Monday during a joint security conference.

He said the security challenges “have been daunting, from terrorism to banditry to kidnapping to separatist violence to crude oil theft to armed robbery and sundry crimes. It’s undoubtedly the greatest challenge to the peace and security of our great nation since the civil war from 1967 to 1970.”

According to him, it is the kind of challenge that would have overwhelmed many nations, “but thanks to the purposeful leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, we can say, I want to repeat, that the worst is over and peace and security are gradually returning to the land.

“Please don’t misunderstand or misrepresent this assertion. We may still witness isolated cases of security challenges here and there, but it will not be on the scale that we have witnessed in the past.