TheCable

Abayomi Olonisakin, chief of defence staff, says the military is confronting about 14 security threats across the country.

Olonisakin made this known at a reception organised by the Nigerian permanent mission to the United Nations on the sidelines of the second chiefs of defence conference.

The conference, which was held at the UN headquarters, New York, had more than 100 other chiefs of defence staff from across the world in attendance.

He said of all the threats, the major one facing the county is the insurgency in north-east.

“By my estimation, we have about 14 security threats that we are confronting, ranging from terrorism, insurgency, kidnapping, cultism, to issues linked to armed robbery,” he said.

“We are handling operations in all the geo-political zones of the country.

“We have, of course operations down south and taking charge of militancy and oil theft; we also have that in Lagos. But the major one is ‘Operation Lafiya Dole’, which, since we came on board, we have stepped up the game.”

Olonisakin also said the military has been able to decimate Boko Haram, and that “what they are doing right now is hitting soft targets through suicide bombers”.

“We realised that to mitigate this particular menace is not only about the military. So we need to carry the whole nation along to be able to address that,” he said.

The defence chief said, in response to this, the military high command had met with other stakeholders to encourage the populace to provide them with necessary intelligence in its operations.

While stating that many members of the Boko Haram sect have surrendered, he said there’s an “operation safe corridor in Gombe meant for the de-radicalisation and integration procedure for surrendered insurgents”.

Olonisakin further said the military had commenced the process of restoring full civil authority in areas formerly controlled by Boko Haram terrorists.

“We are working alongside the Department of State Services (DSS), the police, and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). We are also ensuring that the civil authority is put in place; places that the military had taken over, we encourage the police and civil defence to come on so they can provide civil authority for displaced people to move in,” he added.