The Nigerian Army has described the warning by the United States of the possible invasion of the country by Al-Qaeda and ISIS as the usual alarm.
The nation’s Defence Headquarters said that the warning was nothing but just an alarm and that Nigeria security agencies are equal to the task, even as it called on Nigerians not to be afraid of such a claim.
The Coordinator of the Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche, who spoke on behalf of the military while answering questions from news men today, August 6, on military operations across the country, said that there is nothing to fear about the U.S warning.
General Enenche, however, described the statement as a wakeup call or form of advice, adding that the security agencies are on top of the situation.
“On the issue that terrorists from other zones are coming to the country, I think it will be good for us to be keeping records as events are unfolding, for me this is not the first time they are raising such an alarm.
“It’s as good as may be five or ten years ago, and the armed forces and the country are conscious of it. When the conflict in Libya was declared ended and which actually was not, what happened? It was we, our NIA and the SSS that said these people were moving which is true.
“Have we not captured foreigners that have been terrorising us in this country?
“So it is just a piece of advice or call that you still keep doing what you are doing, of which I can assure the general public that the security agencies are on top of that,” he said.
General Enenche said that the military in their recent exploits had captured some foreigners who came from neighbouring countries into Niger State.
“Where are they coming from, why do we have ISWAP here now, or is ISWAP indigenous from Nigeria? No. So it is telling you the obvious and I want to tell you that look, continue to ensure that you have measures in place to continue taming them.
`I read the details of the presentation, it was not accusing, it was not specific, it is like saying you people should put efforts to continue to contain them.
“Because when pressure is on them from other climes, they will still continue to increase their influx.”
General Enenche said that the military is winning the battle against terrorism in the country, adding that huge successes had been recorded, adding that while the people outside there do expectation analysis, the military do operational analysis based on the direction of operation.
“What has flattened it is that you will discover that from March up till now, it is offensive, offensive with sacrifices made on the part of the military.
“Yes, of course, we lost some people but the gains have outweighed what we lost which is what we signed for, so what you have seen is success and it will continue to improve.
“This is because, as it is now, we have been given marching orders again, all we need to do is to go and dig up where we have our contingencies because by our training, we are trained to face challenges.”
Source: NAN.
