In a bid to sustain the gains of the ongoing war against banditry and other forms of criminality in the Northwest and parts of Northcentral regions, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, has extended the military operation Sahel Sanity from the initial September deadline to December 2020.
The Army Chief, who stated this during his operational tour to the Special Army Super Camp 4 Faskari in Katsina State, said the extension is aimed at holistically eliminating the criminals to bring about peace, security, and development to the region and nation at large.
The visit of the Chief of Army Staff to the operational base of exercise Sahel Sanity at the Special Army Super Camp 4, is to get firsthand reports on the ongoing operations and to boost the troops’ morale with whom he hailed their doggedness so far.
Buratai, while briefing reporters shortly after getting the operational briefs, announced that with the tremendous successes recorded from the inception of the operation on July 6 to date, there is the need to extend it to December aimed at sustaining the gains.
The Army Chief further stated that the welfare of the troops taking part in the operations will be enhanced as well as the acquisition of more hardware to continue executing the operations while they will keep collaborating with other sister security agencies to win the war.
While expressing the Nigerian Army’s determination to end the banditry in the Northwest and parts of the Northcentral regions, Buratai said that though, the terrain poses a great challenge for the troops especially with the setting in of the rainy season, the Nigerian Army has been devising other strategies to overcome them.
He also used the medium to advise the locals to continue exposing the bandits no matter their relationships with them to ensure that there is no hiding place for the criminals so that normalcy will totally return to the region and country at large.
From the briefs, a total of 103 bandits have been neutralized, 149 suspected bandits arrested, 39 of the bandits’ collaborators were arrested, 139 kidnapped victims rescued, 5, 575 rustled animals recovered, five bandits arm suppliers arrested while 13 rustled cattle buyers were all arrested so far.
