By OKOSUN DENNIS
Motivated by the need to ensure optimal efficiency, the Defence headquarters on Friday in Abuja, with immediate effect scrapped Operation Pulo Shield in the Niger Delta.
It has been replaced with OPERATION DELTA SAFE in line with the Defence Headquarters initiative to restructure the Joint Task Force for better service delivery, efficiency and effectiveness.
Operation Pulo Shield became operational in January 2012 after the Joint Task Force (JTF) was scrapped. Since then, it has functioned as a military wing tackling the buffoonery of militants in the region.
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According to the Director, Defence Information, Brig Gen Rabe Abubakar said the restructuring was in consonance with the vision and mission of the Chief of Defence Staff to contain the current security challenges in the Niger Delta especially protection of critical national assets and provision of security in the area.
Under this arrangement, the Joint Operational Areas of the new outfit have been delineated into three sectors and five Operational Bases covering the entire Niger Delta, Ondo and Akwa Ibom States. The Headquarters of OPERATION DELTA SAFE would be in Yenagoa.
This development, according to Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin becomes expedient in order to inject new tactics and robust operational initiative to tackle the emerging security challenges in the Niger Delta region such as piracy, bunkering, vandalism and other criminalities prevalent in the region.