Ndume Lauds Military Operations In Borno, Appeals For Rescue Of Schoolchildren

The senator representing southern Borno senatorial district, Sen. Ali Ndume, has commended the Nigerian military for intensified operations resulting to relative peace in Borno State recently.

Ndume, who stated this on Friday during a courtesy visit to the theatre commander, Operation Hadin Kai, Maj Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar, also appealed to the military to intensify effort on rescue of 78 Mussa and Lassa abducted schoolchildren, including the travellers abducted along Biu- Buratai road, 56 remaining Ngoshe captives among others.

He said as a senator representing southern Borno at the National Assembly, he is commending the theatre on the exceptional and improved peace witnessed currently in the State.

Ndume noted that at a time they were so hard on the military on security challenges in the State, but now they must commend the military for the succeses achieved so far by troops of Operation Hadin Kai.

“Now we can say that peace is returning back in Borno. Gwoza for instance have been relatively calm. Recently, when we had ambush in Mandaragirau, you reacted divisively on the insurgents. It is about 90 days now that we have not witnessed any attack.

“It is not completely over. The real ‘Hadin Kai’ is now seen. There have never been coordination in the military as seen now. We have been hammering on increment of soldiers salary and you know the President has approved the increment of salary, which is even three times more than what soldiers were paid before.

“I want to also commend President Bola Tinubu for helping Nigerian military to achieve a lot between 2023 to 2026 despite challenges.I wonder what would have happened if Mr President was not assisting the military.

“I want to also appeal for more effort towards rescuing the abducted Mussa and Lassa schoolchildren, including the remaining 56 Ngoshe captives and those abducted along Biu- Buratai road. It is about 100 days now the schoolchildren were abducted,” Sen Ndume said.

Ndume said the National Assembly is pushing for Nigeria Army Aviation so that Boko Haram can be chased out of Borno and other areas, adding that with the relative peace, people now travel to Gwoza without escort.

He called for deployment of more troops to Gwoza, particularly Ngoshe, Askira in Askira-Uba and Hawul.

“With battalion in Kirawa, it is now safe.
Ngoshe has been reinforced. We are making effort to resettle the residents back,” he further said.

Ndume lauded president Tinubu for approving the recruitment of 25000 soldiers and commended the theatre commander for his planned training of 1000 Gwoza youths on weapon handling.

In his remarks, the theatre commander, Operation Hadin Kai, Maj. Gen Abubakar attributed the success recorded to support from Chief of Army , Chief of Defence Staff ( CDS ) , the minister of Defence and governments from the federal to state.

He said for instance, when they had an ambush in Bita – Yamtake route, the Chief of Army Staff was able to quickly do an approval of camera surveillance of the areas.

“All the succeses you talked about was as result of support from the military leadership and government. We have six battalion that have been inducted more in the theatre. As we are spreading out, we seek for more battalion. The battalion in Mandaragirau is a new battalion, Kirawa has a new battalion.

“We also created sector four to break the gap between southern Borno and Northern Adamawa. The creation gave us the impetus to cover all the areas in southern Borno you talked about. The Chief of Army Staff recently approved two more battalion for sector four. They are all fully on ground,” the theatre commander said.

He said the military is now stabilising the operation to enable citizens at internally displaced persons (IDPs ) camps to return home with support of Borno State Government.

Abubakar added that troops morale is presently high , saying that troops’ welfare is a priority in the theatre, which is in line with Chief of Army Staff first soldier culture.