Buratai tell soldiers to be vigilant in spite of Boko Haram defeat

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai has charged personnel of the Nigerian Army to remain vigilant in spite of the defeat of the Boko Haram terrorists in the North East.

Buratai spoke on Friday when he led officers and men on a new year 10km route match exercise in Abuja.

“You all know the effort we are making in the North East and indeed in all parts of the country.

“Let me use this opportunity to congratulate you for performing excellently well in the year, 2016.

“We have taken initiative and we will continue to maintain this initiative with the defeat of the Boko Haram terrorists.

“We must take care of all our areas of operational responsibilities to ensure that we do not have such ugly incident arising again.

“So, on this note, I want to say congratulations and happy New Year to all you and I want to urge you to remain loyal, to remain committed and we must have the highest standard of discipline this year, 2017.

“Once again, congratulations, thank you and God bless,’’ he said.

Buratai, who stressed the need for exercise and training, also urged the personnel to brace for the challenges that may arise in 2017 and urged them to improve on the successes recorded in 2016.

“I have already passed my training directive for the year – 2017, so, I expect every commander to implement that training directive.

“As I have said also, we should be preparing for the Nigerian Army Small Arms Champion (NASAC), coming up sometime in October and I expect formations to prepare for this championship.

“We will also test some of our high caliber equipment during the championship. Training is key and we must continue to train.

“I will expect new equipment and indeed new techniques which we will adopt in our training activities, as well as our operations.’’