Members of the House of Representatives Committee on the Army have expressed discordant opinion over the propriety or otherwise of the planned Operation Positive Identification (OPI) by the Nigerian Army.
The Army, through its head of Civil and Military Affairs, Maj. Gen. Usman Mohammed has however justified the planned operation which he described as carryover of Operation Lafiya Dole in the North East, specifically aimed at maintaining peace during the Yuletide, and to arrest suspected insurgents who may have flee the North East.
The lawmakers met with the Army representatives on Thursday, seeking explanations on the proposed exercise.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, had commenced the engagement with questions as to whether what has been in the media regarding OPI were true or not, and where and how would the operation be conducted without negative mental and psychological stress on the citizens.
“We’ll use it in carrying out our operations based on intelligence available to us. Now since we have smoked them out of their enclaves, many of them according to our intelligence have spread out and are moving across the country. So in the wisdom of the COAS, he felt we could expand the OPI to other parts of the country in order to identify and arrest these Boko haram elements.
“There will be no additional deployment of personnel on the roads, no road blocks, and there won’t be harassment of anyone who’s not with a questionable record”, the army’s representative explained the operation billed to commence nationwide from November 23.
But members in their contributions and questions expressed divergent views with some showing support and admiration for the initiative, while others expressed opposition to the planned exercise.
Unable to arrive at a uniform standpoint, chairman Namdas immediately constituted a subcommittee, to continue the interface, and report back next Tuesday, for the larger committee to prepare the report for onward transmission to the House.
