Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Army launches new counter-terrorism measures

LAGOSThe Nigerian Army yesterday in Lagos said it was undertaking a number of counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency measures with a view to combating the security challenges confronting the country, saying it had adopted a new approach known as “Manoeuverist’ approach to warfare.”
strategizing: The Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen Kenneth Minima (left); his Air Force counterpart, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu (middle) and General Officer Commanding 3rd Division, Nigerian Army, Maj. Gen John Zaruwa, aboard a Nigerian Air Force plane strategising with the aid of maps in the ongoing counter-terrorist operations in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, during a visit to the area, weekend.
Commander, Corps of Engineers, Major-General Funsho Owonibi, who spoke at the opening ceremony of the ‘Operations Planning Cadre’, organised by the 81 Division, at 65 Battalion, Victoria Island, said some of the measures included the establishment of bomb disposal squadrons in all divisional headquarters, establishment of canine units as well as the establishment of the Lessons Learnt at Army headquarters and civil-military relations up to divisional levels.

According to him, the response to the scourge of insecurity had been robust and holistic to match the fight against terrorism and other forms of security challenges in the country, noting “such measures have yielded apparent effectiveness as the operations of the various task forces all over the country are being complemented by the careful siting of Forward Operations Bases (FOB) and highly mobile Quick Reaction Groups (QRG) to deny terrorists freedom of action.
“We must not allow ourselves to be lured into a false sense of security until the last vestige of terrorism is routed from our country” and charged commanders whose formations and units were engaged in the ongoing internal security operations to continuously train their troops in all aspects of military operations.
He added that ”the action of your troops should be guided by the NA code of conduct for internal security operations. You should also be mindful of being an impartial arbiter amongst the host communities you are operating while also maintaining a good civil military relations with them.”
Earlier, General officer Commanding 81 Division, Major General Tamunomiebi Dibi, explained that the adoption of the manoeuverist approach to warfare necessitated a paradigm shift in the army’s operations process in terms of thinking, planning and execution.

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