Army set to engage N/Delta militants...Begins training of personnel in Enugu

The Nigerian Army is getting ready for a confrontation with the Ni­ger Delta militants who have literally brought the nation’s economy to its heels by blow­ing up oil facilities.
Indeed, the Army will this weekend commence amphib­ious training exercises for its troops against the Niger Del­ta Avengers (NDA) and oth­er militant groups in the oil-rich region.
The military authorities announced the launch of the tactical drills in Enugu State, starting from this weekend.
The drill, code-named ‘Exercise Crocodile Smile’, is aimed at equipping the Am­phibious and Internal Secu­rity Operations in riverine communities against the ac­tivities of the Niger Delta mil­itants.
The announcement, which was made on the Ar­my’s Facebook Page on Thursday, is coming on the heels of the warning by the Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Tukur Buratai, that the mil­itary would resort to force if the militants failed to em­brace the Federal Govern­ment’s peace talks.

The Chief of Army Staff, speaking through the Gen­eral Officer Commanding, 82 Division of the Nigerian Army Enugu, Ibrahim Ata­hiru, said the government was still committed to dia­logue but could resort to the use of “Kinetic” force if the dialogue failed.
He said: “Government is still committed to dialogue and whereby this cannot go on, then, there could be re­sort to other means. The non-kinetic (force) means has al­ways been the source first before government can make recourse to the kinetic means.
“So, there is a need for the Niger Delta Avengers to see reason and engage in dia­logue with government.”
“The Nigerian Army will from this weekend com­mence another training ex­ercise code named ‘EXER­CISE CROCODILE SMILE’ in 82 Division and part of 2 Division areas of responsibili­ty traversing the South-South geopolitical region.

“The aim of the exercise is to practice our Special Forces and other units of the Nigeri­an Army in Amphibious and Internal Security Operations in riverine environments and also check criminal activities like kidnapping, militancy and piracy and other forms of criminal activities in sup­port of the civil authority.
“The general public is please requested not to pan­ic on the sight of unusu­al movement of large num­ber of troops, heavy military weapons and equipment in these areas” the military statement said.
Only on Wednesday, Bayelsa State Governor, Se­riake Dickson, had warned that the plan by the military to use maximum force in solving the crisis in the Ni­ger Delta would not end mil­itancy in the oil-rich region.
The governor stated this after holding a closed-door meeting with President Bu­hari at the Presidential Vil­la, Abuja.
He said rather than de­ploying military option, government should collabo­rate with relevant stakehold­ers to discuss how best the crisis could be resolved once and for all.
“I have said that the is­sues in the Niger Delta, the terrain, the historic nature of the issues and challenges are such that military solu­tion may not be the way for­ward,” Dickson had stressed.
According to the gover­nor, “For us who are prod­ucts of a political system at this level, we have a duty to mobilise communal and lo­cal leadership; we have a duty to support the work of intel­ligence and security agencies are doing; we have a duty to ensure that issues are better appreciated and that we fill the communication gap.
“And where there are is­sues, those issues need be ad­dressed and it is also our duty to network like I’m doing to ensure that problems that are identified as the root cause of some of these challenges are looked into.”
Dickson opined that us­ing the military was not the best decision that the govern­ment would take at this crit­ical time.