The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai, has charged the troops to go out there and defeat criminal elements terrorising Nigeria, especially in the North East and North West, noting that the bandits and terrorists are not as armed and trained as soldiers.
Buratai gave the charge on Wednesday while addressing the graduation of 1,142 soldiers from special forces training at Nigerian Army School of Infantry (NASI), COAS said they must put in their best and make use of the training they acquired when deployed to various units in the North East and North West to tackle insurgency, banditry and other forms of criminal activities.
The training, designed to strengthen the fight against insurgency in North Eastern Nigeria and banditry in North West, is the second in its series.
According to him, “You must go out there to defeat the criminals. They (criminals) don’t have the training we have. They don’t have the weapons we have. I must commend the commandant of NASI and Starter Point Integrated Service Limited who had partnered the Nigerian Army in training you on counter terrorism, anti-banditry amongst other trainings.
“You may also find yourselves doing covert and overt operations, but more covert, the training would be sustained till the desired results are achieved. We want you to be the hope that will finally get the criminals on their knees, battlefield is now intelligence and initiative to determine the right time to strike.
“As you are being trained together, you will work together on one unit but grouped into platoons and companies in the field to continue with the Esprit de Corp and cohesion required to fight and defeat the adversaries.” Buratai said.
The Army Chief, who reiterated his commitment to welfare of soldiers to boost their morale, ordered immediate promotion of the 1,142 soldiers, most of whom are in the rank of ‘Private’, to their next ranks. He however warned the troops to desist from acts of indiscipline and social media influence and serve their country with diligence.
The Commandant of NASI, Maj-Gen Kelvin Aligbe, in his welcome address, said the graduands are the second batch of special forces being trained on rigorous activities for fight against insurgency and anti-banditry. “Close contact combat, camouflage, unexpected incident operations and extraction under fire.”
