Don’t dare military, DHQ warns Asari Dokubo

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) on Thursday dared former militant leader, Asari Dokubo, to come to the battlefield and see what the military is capable of.

The DHQ warned him to desist from provoking the armed forces with his comments on the internet.

Dokubo had, on October 5, threatened to shoot down a military helicopter hovering around his residence.

He added that he has the capacity to contain the Nigerian military.

Reacting to Dokubo’s claim that he could defeat the military, the Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj. General Edward Buba, dared him to come to the battlefield and see whether he could contain the military or not.

Buba also vowed that the ex-militant leader would be taken out if he showed up on the battlefield.

He, therefore, called on the security agency whose responsibility it is to take up the matter to do so.

Buba said, “Now, to comment by an individual that he can shoot down military helicopters, I think that’s laughable. And I am about to laugh about that. And I say that because, you know, we are in a democracy, and we are professional. Of course, we cannot just, based on somebody’s comments, begin to do certain things. They will accuse the military of being undemocratic.

“The military is not the only security agency, force, or department in the country. There are other security forces who have a role to play constitutionally when it comes to some of these issues.

“I tell you that he doesn’t have that capability, but I will allow the security forces that are responsible for handling such cases to take up the matter. Ours is: come to the battlefield, and we will take you out. He should come to the battlefield and see whether we can react or not.”

General Buba said the focus for troops is the terrorists across various theatres of operations.

He said, “Now, for us, the enemy we fight is the terrorists. Some may choose to call them different names in the different theatres of operations where they exist. In the northwest and the northeast, some will say terrorists. I mean, some people want to say bandits.

“I tell you that they are all terrorists. We should call them for what they are. They are all terrorists. And that is what we see now. Troops are making significant progress. Like I said, we prioritise taking out the terrorist leadership and we’ve been doing just that. In the last three quarters, we’ve taken out over 300 terrorist commanders, not to mention even their foot soldiers.

“And the aim of this is to diminish their fighting capabilities and to damage their military capabilities, which we have been doing. Even as indicated in the brief that you have just received, you can see how many weapons and ammunitions we recovered.”