Senator Iroegbu
30 November 2011
Federal Government has expressed concern over lack of Nigerian military presence near its border with Republic of Niger alleged to be the major route through which groups like Boko Haram smuggles Libyan weapons into the country.
This was disclosed Tuesday by the Minister of Defence, Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed, when he visited the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin, at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja.
Mohammed, who was accompanied by the Minister of State for Defence, Erelu Olusola Obada, also revealed that Federal Government has approved the establishment of Defence attaché to Niger Republic.
He said: “On the issue of security of our borders, fears have been expressed about arms coming from Niger and our lack of military representation in that country. I appreciate the effort of the CDS and the initiative of asking the deputy concierge to move to Niger. I am sure I have whispered to CDS that we are going to set a process in motion to ensure that the government approves the establishment of Defence attaché for Niger.
“We are very much of the movement of arms and explosives that were stolen from Libya. And I have discussed with the Minister of Defence from Niger recently and he confirmed to me that yes arms are coming in. recently, they had about two trucks coming in from Libya; and they had to fight them, they killed six people and arrested all the ten trucks and all of them were loaded with weapons.”
The minister also said Federal Government are planning defence pacts and cooperation with neighbouring states of Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Central African Republic to stop the proliferation of Libyan weapons in their countries.
“So the fears are genuine but we are up and doing; and we are doing something about it; we are working to set up a memorandum of understanding with Niger. EU has just approached that they would also like to work with us they have fears also of disruption in our sub region if these weapons are allowed to proliferate without challenges. And Mali, Central African Republic, Mauritania Niger are all coming together to set a joint operation to fight movement of these weapons,” he said.
“So I assure you the government is doing a lot in this area and with your support because you are the field operators, and with dedication we are going to face the situation and we not allow it to deteriorate security situation in our sub-region,” he added.
Mohammed commended the Nigerian Military for their efforts in the daunting task of fighting the internal security challenges in the country. He, however, charged them to double their efforts especially through discipline, professionalism and excellent friendly relationship with the civil populace.
He noted: “We are faced with daunting challenges and these demand from all of us extra efforts, extra vigilance, and it also demands that we reappraise our methods and systems because we are faced with situation that hitherto were not known to us. I am referring particularly to acts of terrorism that have become pervasive in this country.
“I charge the armed forces and other security agencies to really look inward; to look at ourselves, our attitudes, our methods of operation so that we devise means and ways of combating these new challenges”.
“I will at the same time, as we involve the military in internal security operations by bringing them into greater contact with the civil population, I will like to appeal to our senior military personnel to consider that the civil populace are our friends, brothers and sisters and to a great extent, we rely on them time for some of the information that we use to plan our operations”.
“Therefore, when coming in contact, you senior officers should encourage yourself to talk to you men to be extra ordinarily civil because military training is geared towards threatening the enemy; when you are fighting a war every citizen of your enemy country is considered an enemy but internal security operation is different and we have to reorient our people to think an d behave accordingly.”
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