The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Army

  • Security: South West Youths Laud Buhari, Army Achievements In 2017

    Youths From the South West region under the umbrella of the Progressive Yoruba Youth Congress have commended the achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari as well as the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt gen. Tukur Buratai in tackling the various security threats the nation faced in the outgoing year.
    Recall that recently, the army said the country faced over 14 various security threats, ranging from terrorism, militancy, kidnapping, among others. But the youth group said the President and the Army have demonstrated capacity in handling the security situation in the country.
    Addressing journalists in Lagos,

    President of the Progressive Yoruba Youth Congress, Hon. Desmond Abiona said the choices of the President in appointing his security chiefs played critical role in the fight against terrorism and other security threats.
    He explained that the Youth Congress has taken stock of what has transpired in Nigeria in 2017, especially around the security circle because of its importance to economic development and concluded that the Buhari administration deserves to be commended.
    He said, “It is common knowledge that security was the biggest challenge for Nigeria before President Muhammadu Buhari came into office. The worst form of the insecurity that bedeviled the nation was the insurgency being waged by Boko Haram as a terrorist group. Its reign of terror was such that people had expected that the whole of Nigeria would have been under sustained attacks from the terrorists by now.
    “There were also militant groups and separatists that those wishing to destroy Nigeria have primed to replace Boko Haram. To the glory of God and to the credit of President Buhari, these threats have all been managed and Nigeria’s integrity maintained. It must be acknowledged that this remarkable feat was no accident even when it has God’s blessing written all over it. The military chiefs appointed by Mr President brought the needed experience, skills, dedication, and commitment to the job to ensure that the country returned to being secured.
    “We have seen results by way of a Boko Haram that is not able to spread its terror further than what it did before President Buhari came to power thanks to the Army that has denied its fighters breathing space. We have seen a Boko Haram that has been flushed out of areas once touted as its stronghold. We have also seen several other aspiring terror groups consigned into undertaking exercises in futility as they try to stake claims to being notorious terror groups.
    “We commend the President for restoring security to the land through the instrumentality of the Nigerian Army and other military and security services. It is a singular achievement for which we are grateful as Nigerians.”
    According to Abiona, the army under Buratai is one that has been rated as the best in recent times and it is something Nigerians are happy to identify with especially when it has done much to secure the country.
    He stated further, “We declare that Mr President has demonstrated capacity in handling the security situation in the country as we recognize the leadership he has provided as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. This in our view was what trickled down to the Nigerian Army which has adjusted itself into the new role as Guardian of democracy.
    “We salute President Buhari for appointing Lt gen. Tukur Buratai as the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who has proven that the administration must be thanked for the appointment and responsible leadership as he has demonstrated. The army under Buratai is one that has been rated as the best in recent times and it is something we are happy to identify with especially when it has done much to secure the country.”
    He noted that the Exercise Crocodile Smile organized by the Army that just ended in some parts of the south-west addressed the challenges that were threatening to destabilize the region.
    He said challenges like those of cultism and ritual killers were dealt with by the exercise.

  • Army arrests IPOB members with anti Anambra election flyers

    Army arrests IPOB members with anti Anambra election flyers

    Army personnel attached to 144 Battalion under 14 Brigade, Ohafia, Abia State have reportedly arrested three members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra ( IPOB ) in Aba, the commercial nerve of the State.

     The suspects whose names were Mr. Nwagbougwu Okeke, aged 55yrs, Mr. Chidiebere Nwaoha, aged 35yrs and Mr. John Nwaogazi, aged 50yrs were said to have been arrested by the soldiers on patrol in Aba on Sunday.

     Sources within the battalion told our reporter that the IPOB members were arrested Sunday morning around Alaoji Fly Over.

     The suspects according to a source said that they were caught distributing flyers and posters with caption “No Election In Anambra State”.

     The source said that the suspects and flyers have been handed over to the Department of State Security for continued investigation.

     A senior officer at the battalion who craved anonymity said that the 14 Brigade would continue to work in synergy with the police and other sister agencies to flush out criminality and anti social activities within the State.

     The officer urged members of the public to inform the army and other security agencies of the activities of criminals and hoodlums in their locality, stressing that they would make criminality unprofitable in the state.

  • Court adjourns case between Army and Ibadan community to Dec. 6

    Court adjourns case between Army and Ibadan community to Dec. 6

    An Oyo State High Court has adjourned further hearing in the case between the Mesiogo Estate, Ibadan and the 2 Division of the Nigerian Army to December, 6.

    The community dragged the army to court over threat to demolish houses in the estate on the claim that they sit on the cantonment’s land around Akobo area of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

    At the hearing yesterday, the court sustained its earlier order restraining the army from demolishing or doing anything capable of threatening the peace of residents of the community pending the determination of the suit.

    The order was granted by Justice A. L. Akintola on November, 1.

    At the hearing yesterday, defendants’ counsel, Mr Teslim Adigun, who held brief for K. Temini, for all the defendants, asked for a short adjournment on the basis that though his clients had been served, the 48 hours rule of service was yet to be fully fulfilled.

    But plaintiff’s lawyer, Mr Kunle Ishola, contended that all the defendants had been duly served  over 48 hours earlier.

    The judge confirmed service from court records and insisted that the rule had been fulfilled having served the court processes as at November, 6.

    Further hearing was adjourned to December, 6.

  • Army repels Boko Haram attack on Gulak

    Army repels Boko Haram attack on Gulak

    •Residents return home

    Normalcy is gradually returning to Gulak, headquarters of Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State, as the military repelled a Monday night attack on the town.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the insurgents, about 7pm, engaged the military in a gun battle as they attempted to enter the town.

    The Councillor representing Gulak Ward, Mohammed Abubakar, said residents who escaped to the bush and mountains are now returning.

    “I am on my way back home; just about 49 kilometres to Gulak, but I have spoken to my wife in Gulak, and she said the family is back home, with the return of normalcy,” Abubakar said.

    Commissioner of Information and Strategy Ahmad Sajoh said reports from the area showed that the attack was successfully repelled by the military and other security operatives, including local hunters and vigilantes.

    “I have spoken to the council chairman, and he said people have returned, including the district head and other personalities.

    “As for casualty, we are yet to ascertain the level of destruction, death and the injured,” Sajoh said.

    He added that the government would send a delegation to assess the situation.

    Chairman of the council Yusuf Mohammed refused to give the number of casualties, but said the insurgents suffered heavy casualty.

    “I also know of the death of two women, a 70-year-old and a 30-year-old, hit by stray bullets while trying to escape,” Mohammed said.

     

  • Court stops Army from demolishing homes

    Court stops Army from demolishing homes

    Residents of Mesiogo Estate at Akobo area of Ibadan, Oyo State capital, have obtained an Oyo State High Court order restraining the 2 Division from demolishing their homes or from doing anything that can threaten their peace pending the determination of the motion filed by the residents.

    The division, last week, took a bulldozer and other equipment to the community.

    It dug ditches in front of houses and created scenes, apparently to intimidate residents.

    While the Army insisted that the estate is on its cantonment at Ojoo, the residents said they never encroached on Army’s land.

    They produced survey papers showing that the estate is several metres away from the cantonment.

    The residents accused the Army of wanting to add Mesiogo to eight other communities, whose land the military reportedly encroached on.

    Many houses were marked for demolition a fortnight ago.

    In a suit at the State High Court II, Justice A. L. Akintola ordered an interim injunction restraining the Army from “trespassing, demolishing, disposing or further demolishing, disposing or further disposing or in any way interfering with the peaceful enjoyment of the first to fifth claimants’ parcels of land situate, lying and being at Mesiogo Hotel Estate, Alagbode Village, Bodija area, Akobo, Ibadan, Oyo State, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for an order of interlocutors injunction already filed by the claimants/applicants”.

    The court adjourned hearing till November 8.

    Joined in the suit are: the Chief of Army Staff, Ministry of Defence, Col. Olabode, Warrant Officer Olukokun Nureni, Major Zamani and Captain Oyewale.

    The order was dated November 2.

  • Boko Haram : Army kills dozens, rescues boy

    The Nigerian Army on Saturday said it nutrialised dozens of Boko Haram insurgents in an ambush, while they were attempting to cross over to Sambisa forest .

    Brig.-Gen. Sani Usman, Director Army Public Relations, who disclosed this in a statement in Maiduguri, said many of the terrorists escaped with gun shot wounds.

    Usman said that troops of 151 Battalion also rescued a six-year-old boy, when troops laid ambush on fleeing terrorist along Banki-Bula Yobe road in Bama Local Government Area of Borno.

    According to him, items which includes, eight Bicycles, blankets, Jerricans, plates, mats, spanners, cutlasses, clothes, and a pair of Boko Haram terrorists Special Forces Uniform were recovered from the insurgents.

    He added that the troops’ ‘Operation LAFIYA DOLE,’ had continued to gain successes in it clearance operations under the Operation ‘DEEP PUNCH 2’ in Sambisa Forest.(NAN

  • Army trains 25 women in fish farming

    The Nigerian Army School of Military Engineering (NASME), said it has trained 25 women in a three-month intensive course on modern fish farming in Makurdi, Benue State.

    Deputy Director, Public Relations, 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Enugu, Col. Sagir Musa,  said in a statement in Enugu that the GOC, 82 Div. Maj.-Gen. Adamu Abubakar, had issued certificates to the 25 graduates of the course conducted by the NSAME for the benefit of selected interested women of the NASME Cantonment, Makurdi.

    He said the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, had initiated and successfully ensured the actualisation of the establishment of Barracks Investment Initiative Programme (BIIP) in all army barracks and cantonments across the nation.

    Musa said in line with the COAS directive, the Commandant NASME, Maj.- Gen. A.O. Shodanke, ensured the establishment of various agro-allied businesses, skills acquisition training programmes and co-operative societies for NASME community.

  • Ibadan community accuses Army of threats to demolish homes

    Mesiogo Estate, a small community in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, has decried an alleged intimidation and threats by soldiers of the 2 Division of the Army to demolish houses in the residential estate.

    The community shares a boundary with Odogbo Cantonment of the Army at Akobo area of the city.

    The community, according to its spokesman, Pastor Amos Ishola, is located on a separate land bordering the cantonment with government documents clearly confirming same.

    He said the community was marked out for occupation after the original owner and a former governor of the state, Chief Kolapo Ishola, had obtained all necessary land documents from the government.

    Ishola was a registered surveyor and governor of the state from 1991 to 1993.

    But the authorities of the division insisted that the estate is situated on its premises as shown in its newly updated survey. They, therefore, asked the community to join eight others which encroached on its land for official relationship and payment of the land.

    According to them, all efforts to make the community join others for peaceful relationship were ignored by the Mesiogo residents, thereby necessitating assertion of their authority as the rightful owners of the land.

    But tendering survey plans and other government documents, the chairman of the Mesiogo residents association, Mr Oyeniyi Oluyinka, explained that the association did not receive any correspondence from the cantonment, adding that the estate is in no way situated on army’s land.

    According to him, Chief Ishola bought and did the survey of the land in the 1970s. He cut it to plots and sold them, leaving enough setback from the cantonment’s land.

    He pointed out that the cantonment undertook its own survey in 1972 with pillars erected at the borders which are several meters away from the Mesiogo Estate.

    Oluyinka recalled that they only woke up to see an officer and his men carrying out a new survey on June 22, 2017 with new pillars erected to show that the estates stands on the cantonment’s land.

    He said he started receiving calls from an army officer since then, inviting him to come and pick bills for levies to be paid by residents in the estate having established that the estate sits on the cantonment’s land. Oluyinka said he told him that the estate did not encroach on army’s land, adding that the residents have government documents to confirm his claim.

    Instead of listening to his explanation, he said the officer resorted to threats and intimidation, arguing that he was not interested in any claim other than coming to pick their bills. He reported the case to the police.

    The community leader said that some armed men of the cantonment visited the estate last week during which they marked many houses for demolition. They made real the threat when they moved a bulldozer and a grader to the community on Saturday. He explained further that they had started marking out the line to erect a new fence that will capture the community into the cantonment.

    Al efforts to establish that the estate does not fall into the cantonment’s land, are falling on deaf ears, according to him.

    Reacting, the Deputy Director, Army Public Relations of the division, Col Ezinma Idima, insisted that the estate was built on army land. He said residents in the community know quite well that they built on the land of the cantonment, adding that they must come and pay for each plot since the Nigerian Army has agreed to let them have the land. He said the proceeds of the land would be used to demarcate the cantonment to prevent further encroachment.

    “The truth is that that community is one of the communities that encroached on military land. Over the years, we have been making effort to reclaim it. A ministerial committee was put in place in 2010 which recommended that for the sake of being good to our neighbours, the land should be left for them but they have to pay for it. The money will be used to demarcate the army barracks from the communities. They know that they encroached on the army land, including Mesiogo Estate. We are only trying to be sympathetic with them,” said Idima.

    The Commissioner for Lands, Housing and Urban Development in Oyo State, Ajiboye Omodewu, said that the community had not written a letter seeking clarification over their boundary.

    But Ishola insisted that the ministry had sent its officers to assess the area physically after a letter was written to them and that on Monday, landlords in the community met the surveyor general in the state, who told them that they had almost completed the verification, with the promise that the document would be given to the community this week.

     

     

     

  • Army confirms ambush on soldiers in Zamfara

    The Army yesterday confirmed an ambush by suspected bandits on its anti-terrorism team on Friday, near Maru Local Government of Zamfara State.

    Army spokesman Brig-Gen. Sani Usman confirmed this to reporters on the phone.

    He said none of the soldiers was killed during the attack.

    Usman said army headquarters was still gathering intelligence on the development.

    Bandits have continued to terrorise people in the state, especially in rural communities, but troops have made their criminal operations uncomfortable.

    A source at the 223 Light Tank Battalion, Gusau, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that one soldier was injured and two vehicles burnt by the hoodlums.

    The source said many hoodlums were killed, while some escaped with bullet wounds.

    “Soldiers are on top of the situation,” the source said.

     

  • Buratai warns criminals as Army renovates first oil well

    Buratai warns criminals as Army renovates first oil well

    The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, has asked Nigerians to expect more military operations, following  threats across the country.

    He spoke in Ogbia, Bayelsa State, at the weekend when the 16th Brigade renovated the first oil well, Oloibiri Oil Well 1, as part of the community relations activities of the Army in its Operation Crocodile Smile II.

    Oloibiri, a community at Otuabagi in Ogbia Local Government, is where oil was first discovered in commercial quantities in 1956.

    Buratai, represented by the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 6 Division, Maj.-Gen. Enobong Udoh, vowed to deal with criminals.

    He said military operations were conducted to deepen civil-military relations and combat threats.

    Buratai said the Army must be professionally-responsive and discharge its roles.

    He praised the 16 Brigade for rehabitating the historical oil well,  saying it would enable Oloibiri to regain its status as a tourist attraction.

    The Army chief urged the brigade to ensure security at the Oloibiri oilfield, to prevent hoodlums from destroying the national monument.

    He warned criminals in  Niger Delta to desist from crimes, saying the Army was positioned to deal with militancy, piracy, cultism, kidnapping and others.

    Buratai said: ‘’The Army, in consonance with my vision, is to provide a professionally-responsive army in the discharge of its constitutional roles to conduct operations/training in order to position itself to respond professionally to threats we have across the country.

    ‘’You know the threats are many; we have robbery, kidnapping, cultism, militancy, oil bunkering, pipeline vandalism, piracy, oil theft, among others. The Army will continue to have these operations.

    ‘’We have had Operation Python Dance and we have been running Operation Crocodile Smile II. These operations are conducted to position the Army to combat crimes threatening our nation.

    ‘’We also conduct operations so that we can have a conducive environment for business activities to thrive and to guarantee the safety of law-abiding citizens, in order to enable them go about their activities.

    ‘’During such operations, the Army goes close to the people because in the first place, we belong to the people, identify with them, carry out community relations, medical services and conduct sanitation activities.

    ‘’As in the case of Oloibiri oil well, the 16 Brigage decided to rehabilitate this place as part of its activities so that it can be positioned to regain its status as a tourist attraction, which it is.’’

    Deputy Governor Rear Admiral John Jonah (retd.) said the Army had challenged the government through the Oloibiri initiative.

    He appealed to Nigerians to appreciate the sacrifices of the Army, saying some people had not been fair in the interpretation of the roles of the military.

    Jonah said:’’The military has evolved over the years. Like they say, crocodiles never used to smile, but they have smiled now; and pythons also danced.

    “Now, they are going for octopus grip. We are moving on. The most important thing is that what has been the textbook teaching is now getting translated into reality in our lives.

    ‘’The military as much as it is trying, I do not think it is getting the right attention, interpretation of the roles it has been playing. It is not easy to leave one’s family in the defence of the country.

    ‘’Tourism is one area we are concerned about, to generate funds. Oloibiri, given its historical significance, is one area we are interested in. For the Army to have taken this initiative, it is a big challenge to us.’’

    The Commander, 16 Brigade, Brig.-Gen. Kevin Aligbe, said the renovation was carried out to underscore the historical and economic significance of the well.