THE Nigeria Navy has assured that its men are combat ready for both internal and external security aggressions that may confront the nation, especially as regards its territorial waters through which the largest of the nation’s wealth is derived.
The force has also sent a warning signal to illegal operators in the country’s waterways to steer clear of the nation’s waterways as it would no longer be business as usual.
These were the submisson of Real Admiral Johnson Olutoyin after the completion of Exercise Seioutu Duopamo, which ended at the weekend at the Naval Base in Warri, Delta State.
The exercise, which was launched on Tuesday last week, was embarked upon by the Central Naval Command, with the purpose of clearing the waterways of criminals activities.
Real Admiral Johnson, while speaking with newsmen, stated that during the four-day exercise, a number of boats, loaded with illegal refined petroleum products were intercepted and destroyed, while the criminals were also arrested.
“For this exercise, I can say that along the creeks, we’ve have some of our boats arrest some boats that were loaded with illegally refined products. These boats were destroyed by burning,” he stated.
The naval boss, who expressed satisfaction with the exercise, added that besides the boats on illegal operators, several other vessels were also intercepted and interrogated, but were later found to have genuine papers and consequently released.
According to him, in no time, the naval ships would set sailing for another round of water surveillance to flush out criminalities and illegalities.
“This is a continuous effort that we must put into place. We may not have arrested some now, but certainly over the time, we keep on intercepting, interrogating and those we found not having correct papers are arrested,” he stated.
On the force’s readiness to combat security challenges on the nation’s territorial waters, Rear Admiral Johnson, said, “all we are doing now is to evaluate our readiness to combat the security challenges in our waters. And with more and more of this kind of exercises, the professionalism in our men, the combat readiness of platforms will continuously be improved upon and once we are able to do that, anytime any day we are called to deliver, we will be ready to do so.”
Speaking on challenges confronting the command, he noted that “there is no doubt that the available platform for us is grossly inadequate to cover this area. However, what we have been trying to do is to continue to make sure that we have this platform at sea, we monitor the various river entrances for vessels coming in and out, and occasionally we also collaborate with the Nigerian Airforce by using their maritime patrol aircraft to spot some of the vessels that are deemed to be vessels of interest and we can now vector our ship to intercept and interrogate them and they can arrest them.”
Exercise Seioutu Duopamo, an Ijaw dialect, which means clearing waterways of criminals and bad elements from the entire Central Naval Command area, was led by commodores Monsuru Boladele (OTC) and Fred Oyedele (officer conducting the exercise).
Meanwhile, CHIEF of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutant General Azubuike Ihejirika, on Sunday, stated that the Nigerian Army will channel its resources towards providing first-class training for its personnel to meet contemporary challenges.
He stated this at the graduation ceremony of the eighth basic counter terrorism training conducted by the Nigerian Army Training Centre, Kontagora, noting that the training would enhance the capacity of the personnel in the discharge of their duties.
The army boss said the training was organised for junior officers owing to the deficiencies he had noticed in them bordering on indiscipline, negligence of duties, as well as illegalities.
“To bridge the gap, a well package leadership training has been incorporated into your course to equip you with requisite knowledge to become effective leaders.
“To appreciate the importance of intelligence as key drivers in irregular operations, special package on intelligence has been included and conducted by counter terrorism experts, from the Directorate of Military Intelligence and Department of State Security.
“The training you have received within the last five weeks has provided you the requisite professional competence to tackle challenges you are likely to meet in the fiel,” he said.
Ihejirika, however, reminded the officers that their conduct during internal security operation was very important, and urged them to adhere strictly to the professional rules of engagement in a bid to tackle the challenges and assuage the suffering of the people.
Tribune
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