By Sumaila Ogbaje
The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa, has announced the harmonisation of all joint task force operations to tackle terrorism and banditry in the North West.
Musa made this known while briefing newsmen on the operations of the military across the country on Tuesday in Abuja.
Musa said that his recent visit to the North West theatre of operation provided an overview of the entire operation and realised that they needed to harmonise the operations.
According to him, there is Operation Hadarin Daji and Operation Whirl Stroke, both within the Northwest region,
“We have seen the need to harmonise them into one operation like we did in the North East, where you have operation Hadin Kai.
“The same thing is being done now for the North West operation and we have one unified operation that is going to be called “Operation Fansan Yanma”.
“Now the intention is to ensure that we synergise all our efforts in addressing the security challenges in the North West. It has been their tradition for the bandits to be able to flow between the states within them.
“So now what we are doing is that since we are harmonising the whole operation, we will come under one commander and then the commander will be able to utilise all the equipment and troops together to ensure that we address this critically,” he said.
The CDS said the intention of the bandits was to just show that they were present through the acts of criminality, adding that the support of the people was critical to defeating them.
He said that the terrorists were being fed with information on troops’ movement, warning that the terrorists were bunch of deranged individuals that had no allegiance to anybody.
He said the military would help to build the capacity of the locals to be able to defend themselves, in the event of an attack for a while before the military could come in.
Musa assumed Nigerians that the military has intensified efforts to ensure that all schools across the country were provided with necessary security.
“Those ones that are isolated, actions have been taken to ensure that it is either they are placed together where security could be provided.
“This is because we have thousands of schools scattered all over.
“Efforts have been made to make sure that we position them in such a way that troops will be able to respond in case there are any attacks or threats to the lives of the pupils in these schools,’’ he added.
Earlier, the Chief of Defence Training and Operations, Maj.-Gen. Emeka Onumajuru, said the military had continued to record successes in various theatres of operation.
In the North East, Onumajuru said that no fewer than 170,000 locals had been able to return to their homelands in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States.
He added that about 125,517 terrorists and their families had so far surrendered with some repentant fighters successfully moved to Operation Safe Corridor in Gombe State as part of their non-kinetic lines of operations.
“Statistics on major roads that have been reopened, on markets that have been reopened, also shows that the troops have done well and economic activities have increased.
“The farming planting session was also good and we are working towards ensuring that the harvest is also as successful as planting,’’ he said.
Onumajuru said that the military had also intensified efforts in the fight against crude oil theft and boost oil production in line with the directive of the president. (NAN)