COAS to troops: Don’t give any ground to terrorists

The Chief of Army Staff,  (COAS) Lieutenant  General  Kenneth Minimah has  charged officers and soldiers involved in the ongoing counterterrorist  operations in the Northeast, to ensure that the terrorists do not have any ground or opportunity to breach security and perpetrate atrocities in any part of the areas of responsibility in the campaign.

The Army Chief  stated this  in Maiduguri,    while addressing officers in Giwa Barracks in the course of his operational tour to check on the deployment & disposition of troops  in the theatre of counterterrorist campaign  covering Borno, Yobe and Adamawa  states.
General  Minimah who  commended the troops for their resilience in the ongoing offensive  against the terrorists, also assured them that all necessary efforts were being made  to ensure that  troops did not lack any requirement that is considered vital to accelerating  the success of the mission. He however warned against any form of indiscipline  or mishandling  of equipment available for the  operation at the moment.
He urged the   officers to continue to give required leadership to the men.

“All the training and experience already imparted in all military personnel”, he said were now necessary and  required to ensure that the entire effort at curbing the menace of terrorism succeed as planned .

COAS  who was in the company of  Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, also visited the Military Hospital in  Maiduguri  and interacted  with troops who were wounded in the course of the operation. The Commander of the hospital, Brig Gen Ike Okeke, while briefing the service chiefs, stated that most of the  wounded soldiers were now in stable condition and  some of them have  expressed the desire to rejoin their units & colleagues in the operation . The army chief however directed that the hospital should  forward to him directly, any requirement for whichever case that required referral for further treatment any where in world.

The service chiefs also conducted a comprehensive air surveillance  of the entire mission area covering Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states in addition to the direct inspection of some key locations. They told reporters in Maiduguri  that they were satisfied  with the progress of the operations & performance of the deployment so far,  noting that substantial expectations of the counterterrorist campaign was being achieved satisfactorily.