We are making progress in both providing security and preventing further violence.”
By Ife Osemedua
365Daily – The Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, has assured that the federal government is addressing the resurgence of Boko Haram activities in the North East Region of Nigeria.
He said the renewed attacks is as a result of the group’s renewed efforts to destabilise countries among the satellite including Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria.
Abubakar said with the application of both kinetic and non-kinetic efforts, normalcy has returned to communities in Birnin Gwari and other parts of Kaduna State, as markets are open and traffic is flowing in and out unhindered.
He said this known while speaking to journalists at the end of his working visit to military institutions in the state.
The Defence Minister expressed satisfaction with the performance of the security agencies, saying that the military gained momentum in the last two weeks and neutralised a significant number of insurgents.
He noted that with efforts of the institutions in Research and Development, Nigeria will soon be self-sufficient in military equipment.
According to him, “the institutions are doing very good job and they are also carrying the instruction of Mr. President in deep research so that we will eventually self-sufficient in our military requirement including the platforms and the equipment we need to execute the military functions.
“I believe they are doing very well in research, we have seen the new innovations that they doing ranging from MWRAPS, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) and other equipment that are really needed by the armed forces. He noted that the production of military hardware locally means the country is moving from import to self-reliance, we are producing these equipment locally.
“We have seen also the workshop, most of the damages to the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle, also known as MRAP vehicle, you have seen are being repaired there and we are doing very well in maintenance, new developments and new research. We have also seen the new buffalo MRAPs and other equipment they built which is really commendable,” he said.
On training of military officers, the Minister said it is critical to any development especially in the armed forces, assuring that, the Federal Government will continue to support the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) to train the Cadets and turnout very good and highly committed officers from the academy.
The Minister, as part of his tour, visited the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) permanent site and Post Graduate School at the old site, Air Force Institute of Technology and Buffalo Engineering Technical Services, all in Kaduna State.
On the killings in Benue State, Abubakar said it was mainly caused by farmer-herder communal crisis which requires a non-kinetic approach.
“We are working on resolving these conflicts by engaging communities and ensuring herders remain within designated grazing areas,” he said. “We are making progress in both providing security and preventing further violence,” he stated.
Earlier, the Commandant, NDA, Major General Abdul-Khalifa Ibrahim commended the Federal Government for providing the necessary resources and upgrading the academy’s infrastructure.