1st September, 2015
Jethro Ibileke/Benin
Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state has challenged the leadership of the Nigerian Armed Forces to come up with new tactics to defeat Boko Haram insurgents in the North-Eastern part of the country.
Oshiomhole gave the challenge on Tuesday in an address read on his behalf by his deputy, Dr. Pius Odubu, at the opening ceremony of the 17th Combat Service Support Training Week of the Nigerian Army School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering in Auchi, Edo State.
“Right now, the Boko Haram sect has taken to unconventional tactics, through the use of suicide bombing to inflict harm, kill innocent and defenceless citizens and instill fear.
“In order to defeat them, it is imperative that new tactics and strategies must be evolved by the army and other sister security agencies,” he said.
In view of what he described as the worrisome “unconventional tactics” used by the Boko Haram insurgents, the Governor urged the army to sustain the provision of essential materials and health services to the troops in the various flash points, through the service support corps.
He however commended the military for its current success in major parts of the North East as well as its role in checking various forms of crime in the state.
Earlier in his speech, the Chief of Army Staff, Maj. Gen. Turkur Buratai, reiterated the Armed Forces’ readiness to continue to generate modern strategies in order to provide support for the troops, especially in the North East, with a view to bringing the Boko Haram insurgency to an end by December, 2015, adding that such tactics would include equipment procurement and technical manpower.
Burutai who was represented by Maj. Gen. S. Muazu, explained that the army was currently faced with the dearth of spare parts technicians for its newly acquired equipment, which he said where procured through “haphazard means,” adding that efforts were presently being made to address the issue, in line with the Public Procurement Act.
“Let me assure you that efforts are on to get the requisite spare parts for the newly acquired equipment and also train our personnel on effective equipment maintenance up to Fourth Line Level of repairs.
“I have already set up the Nigerian Army Procurement Committee and the Directorate of Army Procurement in the Army Headquarters,” Burutai said, noting that the theme of the workshop was apt in making one of its major operations, Op LAFIYA DOLE, highly mobile, “while taking the fight to the terrorists in their hideouts.”