The Chief Of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen Yusuf Tukur Buratai, has called on soldiers to combine their firepower as provided for them by the Nigerian Army in form of weapons and vehicles with action to rout the remnants of Boko Haram insurgents in the North-east.
Buratai stated this on Sunday during a training of officers and live firing demonstration of newly procured VT4 MBT and ST1 tanks for the Nigerian Army Armoured Corps at the Geji firing range in Bauchi.
The army chief charge soldiers to be decisive on the battlefield, adding that the newly acquired weapons and training will enable them to exterminate Boko Haram remnants in the region.
“If you go to the field, you must be decisive. You must deal with them when you combine firepower mobility and shock action. The adversaries have no option than to be dealt with accordingly,” he said.
The COAS informed that he came to the event from Borno and Yobe States where he visited officers and men under the ‘Operation Lafiya Dole’ and expressed the hope that soldiers from Armoured Corps in Bauchi will mobilize to the two states with the newly purchased vehicles to go and round off the fight against insurgency.
He promised to organise a. advanced training for officers from the electrical and mechanical units of the Army with a view to ensuring that they maintain the vehicles properly.
Speaking earlier, the Commander Armoured Corps, Bauchi, Major General MH Magaji, informed that trainees were drawn from different Army formations and units across the country.
This, he said, is in line with the directives from the Army headquarters.
Magaji appealed to the COAS to construct an access road to the firing range to facilitate easy movements of officers during exercises like that one.
He assured that with new armoured fighting vehicles procured, the corps will make Nigeria proud in the course of fighting insurgents.