Why Army took over the duties of Police

• As Burutai creates two Army Divisions, six Brigades

The pressure on security operatives in Nigeria has necessitated the expansion of security structures across the country. This compelled the Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Buratai, to establish new army formations to expand the scope of military presence in Nigeria.

The Chief of Army Staff created two new army divisions and six brigades, which he said was in response to the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari to expand the footprint of the military a\cross the country.

The frequency of violent uprising and use of sophisticated weapons by the Boko Haram terrorists and Fulani herdsmen overwhelmed the capacity of the Nigeria Police to contain; thus, the drafting of the Army, Airforce and others into intervening in the internal security of the country.

To strengthen military operations across the country, President Buhari approved $1 billion intervention fund for internal security. The fund is scheduled to be utilized in acquiring weapons and other operational needs, Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, had said on Wednesday after the security meeting with President Buhari in Abuja.

Some critics, however, expressed reservations over military involvement in internal security rather than the Police. Nnamdi Obasi, West Africa analyst for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, had argued that, “The increasing deployment of military forces for internal security operations across the country underscores the profoundly dysfunctional state of Nigeria’s public safety institutions, particularly, the ineffectiveness of the Police force.”

But the Defense Ministry spokesman John Agim, asserted that, “The kind of criminality and the kinds of weapons being used have reached a level of sophistication to a point that the police doesn’t have the capacity to handle it and the military has to come in.” he had maintained that, “The situation isn’t good for the military; it’s not good for the police.”

Special Forces are being deployed to Zamfara State, North West, to battle gangs of bandits that have carried out repeated attacks on villages, Nigerian Air Force spokesman, Olatokunbo Adesanya, had said onWednesday in a statement. About 32 people were killed in the latest raid last week that targeted the village of Bawan Daji.