Boko Haram Won't distabilize Nigeria- CDS

By KingsleyOmonobi, Abuja
Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal
Oluseyi Petirin Friday warned Boko Haram
and other terrorist groups intent on
destabilizing Nigeria to think again as the
Nigeria Armed forces would hit hard at any
such group in its resolve to keep the nation
one and ensure the sustenance of
democracy.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the
Defence Advisers annual conference in Abuja,
the CDS who showed visible anger at the
unrelenting posture of the Boko Haram sect
over attacks in parts of the country despite
government’s sincere efforts at addressing
their complaints, noted that, “there activities
and attacks cannot change anything”.
“Yes, they will get some people maimed. Yes,
they will succeed in killing some people. Yes,
they will destroy some property, but nothing
will happen to our unity and oneness. And
Nigeria will remain one united country”,
Petirin said.
Disclosing that terrorism which was
something we were used to seeing in the
movies has finally come to meet us in our
home, the CDS said, “These terrorist
organizations are however working with
people outside our country. We believe that
with the crises in Libya for instance, these
types of people will easily find their way to
Niger and before you know it, Nigeria will be
their destination”.
Consequently, he charged the Defence
Advisers to rise up to the currently security
challenges facing our country saying, “We
depend on you for anything that can assist
us contain these problems. Let us know who
is helping these terrorists, who are those
involved because this is the most serious
challenge the country is facing now”.
“As the Chief of Defence Intelligence has
said, Niger which is a neighbor to Libya will
become a dumping ground for anybody
targeting Nigeria hence we are planning to
establish a defence mission in that country”
the CDS said adding, “It is in the midst of
confusion that criminals who call themselves
terrorists thrive”.
“They said Gadaffi was the problem. He is out
of the scene and there is more confusion
because those fighting him are now fighting
themselves. Before you know it, these
persons will target Nigeria. This is why you
must be up and doing because any war
against terrorism, if it is not backed by
timely intelligence; it will be like fighting such
war in vain”.
In his speech, Defence Minister, Dr. Bello
Haliru Mohammed stated that the idea of
refresher training for the Defence Advisers,
is to reposition the DA’s and indeed, the
defence sections for increased and effective
performance of their duties.
“I am aware of the administrative
constraints facing the various defence
sections as discussed in the conference. I
assure you that Agency in conjunction with
MOD, DHQ and the Services headquarters
will do all within available resources to
alleviate the problems to ensure better
performance of your duties’, he said.
Chief of Defence Intelligence, Major General
Sani Yakubu Audu in his remark, noted that
finding solutions to the challenges of
international terrorism, trans-border
organized crimes, internal and cross border
conflicts, high youth unemployment and its
adverse consequences among others are
reasons why the Defence Intelligence Agency
needs to train and retrain its key operatives
on a regular basis
.
“It is in furtherance of Nigeria’s defence
diplomacy effort that four new defence
missions were established recently” he said
adding that, “To improve our intelligence
ability, we are equally embarking on
intelligence cooperation with some regional
Francophone neighbours by establishing
defence outpost in Niamey”.
“This new initiative is to bolster our early
warning system as it is increasingly self
evident that most of our current internal
security challenges appear to have some
external connections”, the CDI sad.