By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council APC-PCC on Sunday dusclosed that the military has eliminated more than 15,000 Boko Haram terrorists and bandits in the last three years, while more than 130,000 Boko Haram fighters and dependents have surrendered.
Council Spokesperson, Dele Alake, said in a statement that the figures come from the scale of President Bola Tinubu’s ongoing military operations across the country. The President, he said, is determined to end the 17-year scourge of insecurity ravaging parts of Nigeria through a Five-Year Strategic Defence Operations Plan.
The fighters and dependents surrendered through Operation Safe Corridor, the Federal Government’s rehabilitation programme for repentant insurgents.
According to the statement, “the figures underscore the administration’s two-phase approach of sustained military operations and non-kinetic interventions to address insecurity.”
The plan, it said, “provides a long-term framework for aligning defence priorities, operational requirements, capability development, and expenditure with Nigeria’s current and anticipated security challenges.”
The statement described the initiative as a major component of the President’s determination to reposition the security architecture toward “a more coordinated, intelligence-led, technology-enabled, and prevention-oriented system capable of addressing terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and other forms of criminality.”
On the military’s structure, the statement said President Tinubu has created four new Army divisions and restructured existing formations. The reforms, it said, “aim to expand operational coverage, decentralise military operations, and enable troops to respond more swiftly to security threats across the country.”
The President has also approved two additional Army depots, in Osogbo, Osun State, and Amasiri-Edda, Ebonyi State. Each can accommodate 6,000 recruits at a time, giving a combined training capacity of 12,000 soldiers.
The Osogbo facility’s capacity is already being demonstrated, with 5,210 recruits currently undergoing training there. The expansion is expected “to reduce recruit turnaround time and increase the number of soldiers available for deployment.”
President Tinubu has also approved the recruitment of an additional 28,000 soldiers “to strengthen the military’s presence on the ground and enhance its operational effectiveness.” He approved the recruitment of 50,000 additional police officers as well, to reinforce internal security and improve policing capacity.
The administration is also investing in military accommodation and operational infrastructure. One such project is a 700-unit military barracks in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, “designed to provide military personnel with a professional living and working environment and essential military infrastructure.”
On how the plan will work, the statement said the Federal Government is ensuring that investments in the security sector are guided by clearly identified threats, operational requirements and national priorities.
“The plan is expected to strengthen combat readiness, address critical capability gaps, optimise available resources and minimise unnecessary expenditure and wastage,” the statement said.
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