The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Olufemi Oluyede, on Wednesday in Ilorin, Kwara state capital ordered the Nigerian Army to flush out bandits terrorising the people of Baruten and Kaiama local government areas of Kwara state and Borgu in Kainji forest in Niger state within one month.
Addressing a troop at the 22 Armoured Brigade, Sobi Cantonment, Ilorin, the COAS said that the Nigerian army will not allow the insurgency in the North East to escalate to the North Central.
Oluyede said that it is the responsibility of the Nigerian Army to protect the territorial integrity of the nation, adding that, “no single part of the territory would be allowed to integrate or be taken away by insurgents in any form, either in form of bandits or Boko Haram or whatever name they may call it”.
The COAS, who inspected the military guard of honour at the 22 Armoured Brigade, Sobi Cantonment, said that “I’m giving you one month from now to recover all territory in Baruten, Kaiama and other areas in Kainji forest to the territorial integrity of Nigeria”.
He said that the bandits must be flushed out of the Nigerian territory in the next one month.
“All of you have promised to fight and recover whatever the insurgents might have taken from the country and I believe you will keep the promise”.
The Army Chief, who said that he was going around the country to ensure that the country becomes better, added that “the country was having some challenges and we have to push the insurgents out of the country.
“In the next one month, I don’t want to see any one of the insurgents in our borders again”.
The Chief of Army Staff promised better welfare, feeding, education facilities uniform for members of the Armed forces, saying that, “I want to see soldiers become good medical doctors, engineers and other professionals.
“We have tried to intervene in providing uniforms with the provision of 100,000 units of uniform per month while N1billion was being allocated to feeding for the soldiers on monthly basis and we have also improved the accommodation facilities”.
Tribune recalled that recently, a group of insurgents, known as Mahmuda, attacked people in Kaiama and Baruten local government areas of Kwara state while seven persons were killed by a yet-to-be-identified group in Ilesha Baruba in Baruten local government area of Kwara on Monday.
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