Tag Archives: Tukur Buratai

Buratai Tasks Officers To Be Professional And Result Oriented

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The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai has urged participants at the First Commanding Officers Workshop holding in Maiduguri, to be professionally responsive and result oriented, while addressing the current security challenges facing the country.

The five-day workshop convened by the 2 Division Ibadan for Commanding Officers to interface and brainstorm on topical issues of security concern, confronting the nation under the theme “Empowering Unit Commanders to be professionally responsive.”

Buratai spoke through a representative, the Theatre Commander Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Lucky Irabor.

He reminded participants of the five-day workshop at the Maimalari cantonment Maiduguri, that the country is currently facing security challenges ranging from Boko Haram, kidnapping, communal clashes, cattle rustling and pipeline vandalism.

He noted there is a need for the military to reposition itself in order to face the challenges squarely.

“I expect that the first commanding officers workshop will provide a veritable avenue for unit commanders in the affected divisions, to contribute meaningful and workable inputs towards my desire to reposition the Nigerian Army to be professionally responsive in the discharge of its constitutional roles.” Buratai stated.

He advised that emphasis be placed on mission accomplishment in the outlined critical scenarios to equip unit commanders with a vast knowledge in confidence building, that would create a positive climate to foster trust and mutual understanding in arriving at solutions.
The General Officer Commanding 2 Division, Major General Chukwunedum Abraham said the commanding officers must wake up to their responsibilities, as  there is no bad soldier but bad officer.

General Abraham said: “The choice of the Northeast for the workshop is deliberate and timely, because of the Boko Haram insurgency ravaging the region, we must continue to strive for excellence, so as to improve our operational effectiveness and productivity, which will invariably stimulate citizen’s support and appreciation”.

The GOC urged the participants to put into use the knowledge acquired during the workshop, as they are expected to acquire enough knowledge to tackle the numerous security challenges facing the country.

 

Source: Channels TV

Troops kill 15 insurgents ‘responsible for accidental strike in Rann’

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Tukur Buratai, chief of army staff, says troops have killed 15 Boko Haram fighters, who were part of insurgents responsible for the mistaken deployment of rockets on an internally displaced persons’ (IDP) camp in Rann, Borno state.

Speaking when he paid a visit to troops of 3 Battalion, Buratai said two days after the accident, Boko Haram fighters returned to Rann in two gun trucks, but were repelled by the soldiers.

He said while one insurgent, suspected to be a foreigner, was captured, others escaped with one gun truck.

He added that the troops recovered the other truck with weapons, including one General Purpose Machine Gun, three AK47 and ammunition.

He regretted that the weapons mistakenly hit IDP camps in the town, killing over 50 civilians and wounding many others.

“Two of our soldiers were also affected in the unfortunate incident,” Buratai said.

He described the incident as unfortunate and big mistake.

“We have all learnt lessons from it,” he said.

“We will take note of this; the issue of coordination and passage of the right information will help to prevent such incident again.

“It is a mistake which can happen and it has happened in other places. We pray it never happen again.”

Buratai urged troops not to allow the unfortunate incident to demoralize them.

He charged them to remain committed, dedicated and patriotic, assuring them that their efforts would be rewarded.

The chief of army staff also met with elders of the community and condoled with them over the incident.

Omoke, commanding officer of 3 Battalion, said Rann was one of the last towns retaken from the insurgents on March 22, 2016.

He said since the town was captured, insurgents had made five failed attempts to attack Rann but never succeeded.

The town is the headquarters of Kala Balge local government area of Borno. It is 175km from Maiduguri, the state capital, and 8km to Cameroon.

 

Source: The Cable

Finally, Army to launch special offensive to end southern Kaduna killings

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Tukur Buratai, chief of army staff, says the military will commence a special operation in the southern part of Kaduna to end the persistent killings.

Fulani herdsmen have been accused of carrying out killings in southern Kaduna, which led to the declaring of a 24-hour curfew in three local governments areas of the state.

The curfew has since been relaxed by 12 hours in Zangon-Kataf and Kaura, but Jema’a’s is still in full force.

Speaking with journalists on Thursday at the state house after a five-hour meeting with security chiefs and President Muhammadu Buhari, Buratai said the operation would cover parts of Plateau and Kano states.

He said that the military operation — operation Lafiya Dole — would continue in the Sambisa Forest where troops ?recently flushed out remnants of Boko Haram insurgents.

“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.,” he said.

?”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 parts 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.”?
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Also speaking with journalists, Mansur Dan Ali, minister of defence, said they were “able to come to conclusion on almost all the crises that are going on across the country.”

“The southern Kaduna, the Niger Delta issues and other major crisis areas were discussed and resolutions were passed,” Ali said.

“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.”

The meeting was also attended by Ibrahim Idris, inspector-general of police (IGP), Lawan Daura; director-general of the department of state service (DSS) amongst others.

Sambisa Forest to be converted as army training ground – Buratai

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Tukur Buratai, chief of army staff, on Monday said Sambisa forest would serve as training ground for personnel of the Nigerian Army.

Buratai said this in Damasak, a town in Borno, while celebrating Christmas with troops of 145 Battalion.

He said troops were already conducting a mop up operation in the forest.

“We are also opening up roads to Sambisa and Alagarno forest. Sambisa forest is going to be one of our training grounds,” he said.

“I have already directed that we should conduct Nigerian Army small arms championship in that forest next year.

“And we are going to use it also to test fire our fighting vehicles, other key equipment and weapons that require testing whenever we want to induct new weapon and equipment into the Nigerian army inventory.

“It will afford us very good ground for basic tactics and indeed advance tactics, including but not limited to tactics at the Platoon, company, battalion, Brigade and even division levels.

“We are going to make it more robust to make sure that these criminals do not come back to that forest again.”