The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant-General Farouk Yahaya, on Sunday in Minna charged troops to eliminate suspected bandits and kidnappers and take their weapons.

Mr Yahaya made the call during an operational visit where he inaugurated some facilities for the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), Headquarters, Nigerian Army.

“I am here in Minna today as part of my operational visits across the country to ginger our soldiers for the good job they are doing.

“I urge them to continue and to be more resolute and decisive in dealing with the criminals.

“When we engage criminals such as bandits and kidnappers, we are not looking for prisoners of war but to kill them and take their weapons.

“That is what we will continue to do until we stamp them out,’’ he said.

Mr Yahaya said that some areas of challenges that were highlighted by the commanders would be taken care of by the military authority.

“The essence of the visit is to interact with the soldiers and identify some areas of concern, address them and ginger the officers and soldiers to do more,’’ he stressed.

The COAS reiterated that the army was doing its best with other security agencies to tackle insecurity across the country.

“We are addressing security challenges in collaboration with other security agencies and stakeholders.

“It is not easy to tackle security challenges but I must tell you that we are doing our best,’’ he said.

He noted that many of the criminals lived in the midst of responsible members of the public, hence the need to provide useful information to security agencies to tackle insecurity.

“There is a need for the public to give accurate and useful information to the security agencies to tackle insecurity.

“If we take security as everybody’s business, we will have more synergy and improve on what we are doing,’’ he said.

The COAS inaugurated TRADOC officers’ transit accommodation and arms store for TRADOC, and a nursery and primary school for the Nigerian Army Officers Wives’ Association.

He will also inaugurate a Doctrinal Development Conference for TRADOC in Minna on Monday.

The conference has “Capacity Building of the Nigerian Army in Doctrinal Development for Effective Training Operations in a Joint Environment“ as its theme. 

(NAN)