New Telegraph

Insecurity: We’re conducting internal security nationwide –Military

The military says it is conducting internal security (IS) in the 36 states as part of its constitutional mandate under the Military Aid to Civilian Authority (MACA). Although established primarily to defend the nation’s territorial integrity against external aggression, the military is also empowered to deploy troops when the need arises.

 

The Director of Defence Information (DDI), Major Gen. Benjamin Sawyerr, who made the disclosure in a telephone conversation with our correspondent on Tuesday, said the Nigerian Army,

 

Nigerian Navy, and Nigerian Air Force are involved in the various operations to protect life and property in all parts of the country. Sawyerr also said the Army Headquarters (AHQ) Garrison and Guards Brigade have been doing routine patrols in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and its environs to ensure security.

 

 

The military chief sought the support of the public in the fight to stop terrorism, insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery and other criminal activities in the country.

 

The DDI said: “We are deployed in all the states. There is no state in Nigeria that you do not have the military personnel deployed. Every state in Nigeria has a military deployment.

 

“And all the various Services of the Armed Forces (are) carrying out different operations. “The Navy is carrying out operations in the riverine area. There are various operations. There is Operation MESA, there is Operation Flush and there is Operation ZAKI.

 

“In collaboration with many state governments they also carry out different operations to support the civil authority.

 

So, we are in  all the states. “In Kaduna there is Operation Rainbow. Wherever we are deployed, we carry out operations in support of civil authority.”

 

Asked if a similar IS was on in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),

 

Sawyerr said: “There is no clear-cut mili-tary operation in the FCT. “What you have in the FCT: you see AHQ Garrison, and Guards Brigade.

 

They carry out routine patrols. “It cannot be called operations. These are routine duties that we do to make sure that there is security everywhere.”

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