Nigeria’s new Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa, on Wednesday said one of his key strategies for tackling insurgency is to withdraw soldiers from road checkpoints and redeploy them into the bush to directly confront terrorists.
Mr Musa, a retired general, said police officers and personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) would take over checkpoint duties from the military.
He said this while responding to questions during his screening at the Senate.
He was responding to a question on how he plans to enforce discipline among military officers.
“I can assure you that we’re going to address them totally. We’re going to have independent patrol teams that will go and make sure that we do, and what we want to do again is to withdraw basically all military men out of checkpoints and let the police and civil defence corps handle those aspects so that we can go into the bushes and take out these criminals wherever it is they are. It’s important,” he said.
For decades, soldiers have manned checkpoints across Nigerian roads, especially in volatile areas, to support civil authorities in maintaining security.
Mr Musa said the redeployment of soldiers in the bushes will play a crucial role in restoring farming activities.
“Farmers must be able to go back to their farms. That is to show that we’re achieving success because as little as that, it is very important because food security is big. If there is hunger, an angry man…as a hungry man is an angry man. And so if people can’t eat, you can imagine what will happen.
“So, for us, I think, protecting the farm, working with the civil defence corps that have the agro farmers, agro rangers, it’s very important for us to continue to work together,” he added.
About The Author
