We must restrategise to win anti-terror war, COAS tells GOCs, others

• HURIWA accuses security agents of selective killings
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Major-General Farouk Yahaya, yesterday, said the military must develop novel plans, processes and strategies to meet the changing nature of the battle space.

He also advocated strict adherence to traditions and doctrines to make the Nigerian military a more professional and formidable one that could meet the security challenges facing the country.

Noting that Nigeria is as good as the strength of its armed forces, the army chief harped on the need to develop competencies that would make the force effectively discharge its constitutional duties.

The COAS, in his maiden briefing with General Officers Commanding (GOCs), field commanders and other frontline officers, pledged to rejig the Nigerian Army.

Yahaya, who was appointed 22nd COAS following the death of Lieutenant-General Ibrahim Attahiru and 10 others in a plane crash, promised to lead the military to victory in all ongoing operations across the federation.

His words: “For the Nigerian Army to be competitive in the 21st Century, it must remain professional and seek to develop competencies that would make it ever ready to undertake its constitutional duties.

“It is, therefore, against this background that my mission is to build a professional Nigerian Army ready to accomplish assigned missions within a joint environment in the defence of Nigeria. To achieve this goal, my command philosophy will rest on four pillars – professionalism, readiness, administration and cooperation.”

He continued: “We must return to the tenets of adhering strictly to customs, traditions and ethics of the Nigerian Army. The task ahead of us is enormous, but so also is the strength of our common resolve to accomplish them.

“As your Chief of Army Staff, I hereby restate my commitment to lead you with sincerity, transparency and accountability at all times. I want to assure you all that I would run the Army fairly and justly, giving equal opportunity to all based on individual competencies and character”

IN a related development, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has accused security agents of carrying out “fake ‘killings of Fulani herdsmen and armed Fulani bandits in North West and Benue State while same armed troops are allegedly going from house to house in our Igbo towns and cities in the South East, carrying out extra-judicial killings of many innocent Igbo youths, while the actual unknown gunmen still operate with impunity, attacking strategic government facilities in the South East.”

In a statement yesterday by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the group called for “investigation of the Imo State Police Commissioner to determine if the persons being paraded dead are actually the killers of the former presidential aide, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, who was gruesomely assassinated on Saturday in Owerri by men described as hoodlums.”

It dismissed police account on Gulak’s murder, alleging that the “report is lacking in standardised ingredients of investigative methodology of 21st Century policing institutions globally which relies on 100 per cent forensic evidence and not fabricated testimony of someone apparently under police threat or torture.”

Onwubiko, who stressed the need for thorough, transparent, evidence-led and open investigation to be launched into the Gulak’s assassination to determine the culpability or otherwise of those shown in the media by the police as the killers, stated that the force’s claim should be “re-examined to ensure that innocent persons were not roped and slaughtered just so the commissioner can appear to be gallant. We must stop distracting Nigeria please.”

He went on: “This is because upon the unfortunate incident of the killing of Gulak, there is no empirical evidence demonstrating that the police deployed science-based, evidence-associated forensic probe of the crime scene, but relied on what they said was the testimony of one of the survivors who was reportedly the cab driver that was driving the politician to the Sam Mbakwe International Airport before he met his unfortunate death.”