Terrorists attack communities, travellers and government institutions, killing and kidnapping victims.
Terrorism persists in many parts of Northern Nigeria because the Nigerian military does not have enough personnel, Defence Minister Muhammad Badaru said on Tuesday.
Mr Badaru said despite the challenges, the military has continued to decimate the terror groups and recently killed seven top leaders of the groups.
“The military are not enough, what the bandits do is take advantage of soft targets,” he said. “They find out where there is absence of the military, they attack and run to the bushes.”
Mr Badaru’s narration of insufficient soldiers is not new as previous military and defence chiefs had expressed similar views.
Although the military is originally expected to protect the country from external threats, the security concerns across Nigeria have led to soldiers being deployed to almost all of Nigeria’s 36 states and Abuja.
The Bola Tinubu administration has promised massive recruitment into the security agencies including the military.
On Tuesday, Mr Badaru spoke in an interview with journalists after addressing the members of Senior Course 46 of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), Jaji Military Cantonment, Kaduna, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
The minister, who was on a working visit, delivered an address to the course participants at a seminar organised by the college on counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism.
The theme for the seminar was “Imperatives of Operational and Tactical Level Leadership for Enhanced Counter Terrorism, Counter Insurgency Operations in Nigeria.”
Mr Badaru said, “The government’s commitment to defeating insurgency is a comprehensive security strategy and community engagement remains unwavering.
“We are pursuing a whole-of-the-government approach in handling the counter-insurgency and anti-banditry operations.”
PREMIUM TIMES has reported how various terror groups operate in different parts of northern Nigeria. Apart from the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east, terrorists, locally called bandits, operate in many states in the North-west and North-central.
The terrorists attack communities, travellers and government institutions, killing and kidnapping victims.
In his speech, Mr Badaru expressed optimism that all the terror groups would be defeated.
He disclosed that the military would deploy technology for surveillance and tracing to find the terrorists and deal with them decisively.
“From what you have seen, in the last few months, the military have killed about seven big leaders of the insurgency,” he said. “We are working hard to continue defeating them, and we are making progress.”
On the issue of a non-military approach to the fight against insurgency, he said many of the insurgents were surrendering.
He, therefore, said that they were accepting and de-radicalising the insurgents that surrendered and re-integrating them back into society, while those who didn’t want to repent would be dealt with and decimated.
Speaking further after a tour of some of the military facilities and formations in the cantonment, Mr Badaru said some of the facilities were meant to train special forces to fight insurgency.
The minister said a total of 2,400 of the special forces would be trained while the first phase would begin with 800 military personnel.
He explained that the special forces would be saddled with the responsibility of tackling the insurgents and the training would begin in two months.
“There are enough fighting equipment and platforms, which after the training, they will go into the forests and fish out the terrorists,” he said.
The minister acknowledged the different types of training camps which included that of peacekeeping troops, who would be deployed to Sudan, among others.
According to him, this signifies the level of commitment to peace by the federal government and the military.
Mr Badaru commended the personnel in charge of the different trainings, adding that what he saw had reinvigorated his belief that the government would be able to surmount the security challenges in the country.
He charged the personnel to be active and creative and always think ahead to continue defeating the criminals.
NAN reports that the minister toured camps Kabala and Selaya, the shooting range, training camps and platforms in the Jaji military cantonment.
(NAN)
