President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday approved special military operations in Kaduna, Kano and Plateau states to address the persistent killings in the some parts of the states.
This was disclosed by the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai while briefing State House correspondents at the end of a security meeting with the President in Abuja.
Buratai said the military would conduct exercise in southern Kaduna, Plateau and Kano States code-named Exercise Kunama 2 in order to put an end to the incessant killings in some parts of the affected states.
“Our troops are already in Southern Kaduna. We have our special forces operating there along with all other security agencies and we intend also to have an exercise very soon in Southern Kaduna to cover some parts of Plateau and parts of Kano states.
“So, it is part of our strategy for this year – to continue all the exercises we have had before. We will be having ‘Exercise Kunama 2’ which will come to Southern Kaduna state and part of Plateau and Kano states. Crocodile Smile in the Niger Delta and indeed, the ‘Python Dance’ (will continue), but we are going to rename the ‘Python Dance’ for the South East this year also.”
The Chief of Army Staff also told journalists that military operations, tagged Operation Lafiya Dole, will continue in Sambisa Forest where troops flushed out Boko Haram insurgents.
Also speaking, Minister of Defence, Mr. Mansur Dan Ali, said the killings in southern Kaduna, the Niger Delta issues and other major crisis areas were discussed at the meeting and resolutions were passed.
“In Southern Kaduna, we have our troops being moved and they have already taken places, operations are going on and I believe that very soon it will come to an end,” he said.
The minister said the meeting did not discuss deployment of Nigerian troops to The Gambia, stressing that it “is not a national issue and I believe the ECOWAS are working on that, we have not reached any conclusion on that.”
Thursday’s meeting was attended by the Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Inspector-General of Police, Director-General of State State Services, Minister of Defence and the Director-General of National Intelligence Agency.
