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| Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai |
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, has charged troops of Operation Harbin Kunama 3 to be ruthless, aggressive and decisive against bandits in the North-West.
Buratai gave the charge when he visited the troops stationed at 1 Division Super Camp in Kuyello, Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State on Monday.
He urged them to remain focused in the operations and to act within the confines of the law and rule of engagement.
Buratai said that the Army would not tolerate any form of criminality and threat to peace and security in any part of the country, adding that the corporate existence of Nigeria must not be jeopardised.
โYou must remain focused; you must be aggressive; you must be decisive and you must be ruthless just the way the criminals have been ruthless on the innocent lives. We will not spare them as well.
โThe law must take its course more so if they are seen in the act, and indeed, carrying arms which is within the law and within the rule of engagement.
โWe donโt have time to waste, we must develop, we must move ahead and we must keep our country secured.
โNigeria is our country and we are ready at any time, to lay down our lives for the unity of our dear fatherland.
โWe will not tolerate any group of bandits or terrorists or criminals to disturb our peace and any case of insecurity.
โThe corporate existence of Nigeria as one country is a sacred responsibility that we must uphold at all times,โ he said.
The army chief assured the troops of his commitment to their welfare on the field and in the barracks.
He also pledged to ensure that the troops were well equipped in terms of equipment and logistics to enable them to have successful operations.
Buratai explained that the super camp concept was developed to further consolidate on their operations in ensuring that the army dealt with security challenges bedevilling the country.
โSo, we are happy with the results that we are having both in the North-East and in the North-West here. It is just like any other deployment actually.
โThis time, instead of getting them decentralised, we have a more centralised element of a more centralised forces and it is one of the principles of war.
โYou provide security for the forces as much as possible to deal with the security situations and that has been quite wonderful.
โIn the past two to three weeks, there have been no major attacks in the North-East because of the new posture.
โHere, apart from some isolated remote areas as a result of so many other factors, the attacks have drastically reduced,โ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the camp located in Kuyello in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna state is at the borders of Kaduna, Zamfara, Niger and Katsina states.
Banditry activities have been prominent in Zamfara, Niger, Katsina and Kaduna states, prompting army authorities to launch Operation Harbin Kunama to tackle it.
