Nigeria facing 14 security threats – CDS Olonisakin

Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin has revealed that the military was currently confronting what he identified to be ‘14 security threats’ across the country.
Olonisakin made this disclosure at a reception organised for him by the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations in New York, the United States of America during the weekend.

According to him, “By my estimation, we have about 14 security threats that we are confronting, ranging from terrorism, insurgency, kidnapping, cultism, to issues linked to armed robbery.
“We are handling operations in all the geo-political zones of the country, but, the major one is the one in the North East, which is Operation Lafiya Dole.
“We have, of course, operations down South and taking charge of militancy and oil theft; we also have that in Lagos.

“But, the major one is Operation Lafiya Dole, which, of course, since we came on board, have stepped up the scheme. Right now, we have been able to decimate Boko Haram, but what they are doing right now is hitting soft targets, through suicide bombers.

“We realised that to mitigate this particular menace is not only about the military. So, we needed to carry the whole nation along, to be able to address that.”
Olonisakin said the military high command had met with other stakeholders to encourage the populace to provide them with necessary intelligence with the aim of mitigating incidences of suicide bombings,

“We are working alongside the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigeria Police and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.
“We are also ensuring that the civil authority is put in place; places that the military had taken over, we encourage the Police and Civil Defence to come on so they can provide civil authority for displaced people to move in”, he added.
Olonisakin noted that last week, many Boko Haram militants surrendered.
“We have what we call Operation Safe Corridor in Gombe that is to handle this kind of surrendered terrorists.
“I believe in the next couple of days, repentant Boko Haram terrorists will be moved to that Operation Safe Corridor where they will conduct de-radicalisation and integration procedure for them”, he stated.