4th December, 2015
The Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonishakin, on Friday expressed satisfaction with the ongoing fight against insurgents in the North-East.
Olonishakin said this shortly after receiving operational brief from the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, and operational commanders at the Military Command and Control Centre, Maimalari Cantonment, Maiduguri.
“I am in Maiduguri, precisely Operation Lafiya Dole, one of my operational visits to troops, so I have come to re-access the operation and see how we can improve on our productivity concerning the operation.
“The assessment has been fair, so far we have been on it, of course we have some losses and these losses are inevitable in operations.
“The rate of losses is what you should consider to make sure that you put up actions and strategies to reduce the losses.
“The operation is well on course we are doing quite ok.
“The indices is that we are making so much progress in the area that we are and those areas we have taken over the civil authorities are beginning to go back to these places, so, we are really on course,” he said.
The chief of defence staff also reiterated the Army’s commitment toward meeting the President Muhammad Buhari’s deadline to ending the insurgency.
“It is sacrosanct because we are working and of course we will let you know as time goes on.
“Nigerians should always ensure that they are security conscious and report any issues that are of security implication to the security agencies.
“And areas where they feel there are suspicious activities should be reported so that we can nip the insurgency in the bud.
“Security is everyone’s business, so we must ensure that we are security conscious and also be our brothers’ keepers,” he said.