TheCable

Lucky Irabor, chief of defence staff, has reassured Nigerians of the military’s efforts to ensure peace in the country.

Irabor gave the assurance on Monday, when he spoke in Abuja at a security summit themed: “Promoting Kinetic Operations as a Major Plank for Counter Terrorism and Counter Insurgency in Nigeria”.

According to him, the armed forces of Nigeria are committed to ensuring the return of peace to different parts of the country currently plagued by insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other security challenges.

On March 5, when President Muhammadu Buhari decorated the service chiefs with their new ranks, he had given them “a few weeks” to secure the country.

“You have got a few weeks to do that because by the rainy season, we expect people to develop confidence and go back to the land. So that we don’t get into trouble by being away from the field, and therefore unable to produce enough food for the nation,” Buhari had said.

In his remarks at the summit, the defence chief assured Nigerians that the military will enhance its kinetic operations in addressing the challenges, as security agencies have restrategised to implement the president’s call for immediate action.

“Our strategic objectives are manifold and imbued to neutralise non-state actors and other agents of violence in our communities, forests, and countryside to stabilise the security situation across the nation, to facilitate law and order; and lastly to provide the enabling environment far peace and development,” Irabor said.

“These presuppose that the military would need support from other security agencies during the operations and would be required to give support to others at different stages of the internal security effort.

“On behalf of the officers and men/women of the armed forces, I pledge our unalloyed loyalty to the C-in-C and the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.

“The mandate shall be delivered; fear and despair shall be extinguished from our land. Nigeria will have peace again.”