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| Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin |
Chief
of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin has revealed that the military was
currently confronting what he identified to be ‘14 security threats’ across the
country.
Olonisakin
made this disclosure at a reception organised for him by the Permanent Mission
of Nigeria to the United Nations in New York, the United States of America
during the weekend.
According
to him, “By my estimation, we have about 14 security threats that we are
confronting, ranging from terrorism, insurgency, kidnapping, cultism, to issues
linked to armed robbery.
“We
are handling operations in all the geo-political zones of the country, but, the
major one is the one in the North East, which is Operation Lafiya Dole.
“We
have, of course, operations down South and taking charge of militancy and oil
theft; we also have that in Lagos.
“But,
the major one is Operation Lafiya Dole, which, of course, since we came on
board, have stepped up the scheme. Right now, we have been able to decimate
Boko Haram, but what they are doing right now is hitting soft targets, through
suicide bombers.
“We
realised that to mitigate this particular menace is not only about the
military. So, we needed to carry the whole nation along, to be able to address
that.”
Olonisakin
said the military high command had met with other stakeholders to encourage the
populace to provide them with necessary intelligence with the aim of mitigating
incidences of suicide bombings,
“We
are working alongside the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigeria
Police and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.
“We
are also ensuring that the civil authority is put in place; places that the
military had taken over, we encourage the Police and Civil Defence to come on
so they can provide civil authority for displaced people to move in”, he added.
Olonisakin
noted that last week, many Boko Haram militants surrendered.
“We
have what we call Operation Safe Corridor in Gombe that is to handle this kind
of surrendered terrorists.
“I
believe in the next couple of days, repentant Boko Haram terrorists will be
moved to that Operation Safe Corridor where they will conduct de-radicalisation
and integration procedure for them”, he stated.
read also: Mercenaries Killed by Boko Haram
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