The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, has told the National Assembly that the military needed weapons to frontally combat and ultimately end terrorism in the country.
He said curbing banditry, kidnapping, insurgency and secession would be difficult without the required weapons and other hardware.
Gen. Attahiru, therefore, urged the National Assembly members to, as a matter of urgency, consider these critical needs while appropriating funds.
He said this, on Wednesday, when the Senate Committee on Army led by its chairman, Sen. Ali Ndume, visited the Army Headquarters, in Abuja, as part of its oversight functions.
According to Gen. Attahiru, “To curb and finally defeat these threats, the Nigerian Army requires equipment, weapons, armour fighting vehicles, platforms and various combat enablers.
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“As we all know, Nigeria is faced with a lot of security challenges that include insurgency in the North-East, banditry in the North-West and part of North-Central as well as secessionist agitations in the South-East and South-South geo-political zones of the country.
“I urge you to, as a matter of urgency, consider these critical needs as you legislate and appropriate funds.
“I will be counting on your support, so that we can efficiently perform our constitutional roles and defeat all our threats.”
In his remarks, Sen. Ndume said the Army had a daunting task of mitigating the various security challenges confronting the country, adding that the National Assembly played an important role in terms of giving the necessary legislative support to the military.
