meeting with the commanders of the ongoing counter insurgency war in the country’s northeast.
The military
officials who would be visiting Yobe state on Wednesday said the presidential
directive did not imply they should completely move their offices to the
north-east.
The
spokesperson of the Defence Headquarters, John Enenche, who spoke with the
press at the event gave some insight as to what the presidential directive
entails.
“In
operations like this, it is a normal thing to have the forward headquarters and
then the main headquarters,” he said.
“The service
chiefs are not only service chiefs to this area alone but service chiefs of the
Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What that means is that more
professional time would be given to the theatre. Here remains their ‘forward
headquarters’ while the ‘main headquarters’ still remains so that they can run
the entire armed forces on an equal basis.
“There are
about 14 security operations across Nigeria and the service chiefs must still
look at those operations. But more focus would be on the northeast.”
The security
chiefs arrived Maiduguri late Tuesday morning to carry out the orders of the
country’s Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, who marshalled them to relocate to
the volatile sub-region in order to quell the resurgence of Boko Haram.
PREMIUM
TIMES had earlier reported that the Chief of Defence Staff, Gabriel Olonisakin
led the other service chiefs to the MCCC.
The top
soldiers were received by the Theatre Commander of the Operation Lafiya Dole,
Attahiru Ibrahim, who later had a closed-door briefing with the visitors.
Journalists
were excused out of the briefing hall shortly after the service chiefs arrived
the Theatre Command headquarters.
The meeting
which commenced at about 11.45 a.m. dragged on till about 4 p.m.
At the end
of the meeting, all the service chiefs in attendance avoided contact with
journalists.
Mr. Enenche,
a major general, read a five-paragraph synopsis of the new strategies that the
service chiefs resolved to introduce in order to salvage the worsening security
situation in the northeast.
He said the
service chiefs were in Maiduguri “in compliance with the recent presidential
directives by the Acting President.”
He said the
service chiefs brainstormed on the “received strategic direction and
operational plans” which he said was expected to “give impetus to the military
effort in the northeast operation.”
He said the
service chiefs had in their overall appraisal observed the need for the members
of the public to be more proactive in giving information to the military on any
identified activities of Boko Haram.
He said some
of the key information the military chiefs felt the troops need to succeed
comprise: information on “terrorist sleeper cell, terrorist concentration areas
and outpost location, collaborators and informants to the terrorists,
suspicious habitation and living quarters within rural and urban centres, and
suspicious isolated settlements and camps outside normal living quarters.”
Mr. Enenche
told journalists that the recent 40-day ultimatum given by the Chief of Army
Staff, Tukur Buratai, for the troop commanders in the northeast to fish out
Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, still remained valid.
He didn’t,
however, comment on what would happen if the commanders failed to arrest Mr.
Shekau at the end of the ultimatum.
“We will
still catch him even if the ultimatum expires,” Mr. Enenche said.
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