Nigerian military battling 14 security threats – Defence Chief

By ODIMMEGWA JOHNPETER, Abuja

Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin, said in New York that Nigerian military is confronting no fewer than 14 security threats across the country. Olonisakin disclosed this at a reception organised for him by the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the UN. The defence chief was at the UN headquarters for the Second Chiefs of Defence Conference involving over 100 other chiefs of defence staff across the world.

The CDS declared: “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 Northeast, 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.

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“But the major one is Operation Lafiya Dole, which of course since we came on board, we have stepped up the game. “Right now, we have been able to decimate Boko Haram terrorists, 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 need to carry the whole nation along to be able to address that.”

 To mitigate incidences of suicide bombings, Olonisakin said the military high command had met with other stakeholders to encourage the populace to provide them with necessary intelligence. He said the command realised that intelligence was vital to handling the menace of suicide bombings. The defence chief also said that the military had commenced the process of restoring full civil authority in areas formerly controlled by Boko Haram terrorists.