Insecurity: We are taking fight to bandits – COAS

Nigerian Army is taking the battle against insecurity, kidnapping and banditry to the bandits in their enclaves and hideouts to disrupt their activities and reclaim those spaces, Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Farouk Yahaya has said.
Speaking when he led the principal officers on a courtesy call on the Deputy Governor of Kaduna state, Dr Hadiza Balarabe, at Sir Kashim Ibrahim Government House on Wednesday, the former General Officer Commanding 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, Kaduna, said the fight will not be won immediately but they are fighting to win.
The deputy governor had requested for more troops in the state, especially along the Kaduna-Kachia-Kafancha road, the Kaduna – Birnin Gwari road, the Southern Kaduna axis, Zango Kataf in particular.  

But the COAS in his response said, “We will reclaim all those forest and we will be there every time. Sometimes, some of these things take time. If you are deploying troops, even if they are on the ground, to move them, to mobilise them, to prepare them, to train them, to provide for their requirements take some time. But, we will get there. All these are in our plans.
“We will be in those bushes. In many of them, we will even establish Forward Operation Base there. Securing main supply routes is a task that we must do to allow people to pass and go to their locations. 

“And what we are doing actually is taking the battle to the places, instead of just staying on the road to prevent happenings. This is because if you go to where they are or claim to be, then, you will disrupt their activities and they have no time to prepare.

“If we just wait for them, they will choose where we can’t reach to attack and before you respond, they would have finished and gone. That is what we are trying to avoid and we will get there.
“So, the areas you have mentioned your Excellency are in our plans and we will get there very soon.”