The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Faruk Yahaya, has said that his command had since begun the hunt for the terrorists who attacked Kaduna-Abuja train.
Yahaya said this at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre 1st Annual Members Summit with the theme, “Nigeria’s Security in the 21st Century: Issues, Challenges and Panacea’’ on Tuesday, in Abuja.
According to the COAS, who had earlier visited the scene of the attack, no effort will be spared in tracking and rescuing of all the victims of the incident.
He said the unfortunate incident was perpetrated knowing fully well the successes that the military had continued to record against the terrorists and other criminals across the country.
“We are not relenting on these criminals, bandits and terrorists and we will hunt them down.
“We are on it and we will get the kidnapped victims rescued by the grace of God and we are doing this in tandem with other services and other security agencies.
“We are on it will not be deterred by isolated case of criminals like this.
“We are also in touch with the railway authorities, we met some of them there when they need to quickly rectify it and we shall not give room for the criminals and terrorists to think that they can hold us to ransom.
“All efforts are on to ensure that we hunt these bandits and avert future occurrences on this rail line.
“Further measures are being discussed also with other services and security agencies,” he said.
The COAS also decried the low level of cooperation and support from the locals in the area in the provision of timely and actionable information to the security agencies.
He said the incident could have be averted if the villagers within the area gave out information, adding that it was a carefully planned attacks based on what he observed during his visit to the scene.
According to him, these criminals are not from the moon they are from within, they are from villages and communities and they have been there.
“If information about them is given on time, we can nip it in the bud before it happened.
“If they have done their own part and informed us we would have probably been able to avert this and now that incident they are ignoring has happened because sometimes people feel unconcerned.
“We’re all concerned about this and if everyone now play his part, will be able to further improve on this,’’ he said.
Yahaya said the maiden summit of NARC was appropriate considering the array of seasoned professionals from the academia, the military and security agencies to discuss the issues and challenges.
He said it was expected that tangible actionable recommendations on the way forward to improve the nation’s security would be made, not only for the army, but for the nation.
He said that given the contemporary security challenges the country was contending with, the different opinions, views, understanding and perspectives require consensus for a definitive, practicable and achievable approach to be recommended.
“The summit is a testimony of the center determination to operationalise its mandate as a think tank on issues of defense and security for the Nigerian army and the country at large.
“I would therefore like to commend the center or its activities of finding research based solutions to security and defence challenges facing the country, which has attracted commendation within and outside the system.
“This summit is therefore a commendable initiative, ensuring that collectively, NARC members are able to recommend steps to countering the scourge of insecurity in Nigeria, which will ultimately assist in the development of the nation,’’ he said. (NAN)