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• says 15,000 terrorists, bandits killed in three years
President Bola Tinubu’s administration is finalising a Five-Year Strategic Defence Operations Plan aimed at tackling terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other security threats across the country.
The plan, according to the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, is designed to overhaul Nigeria’s security architecture through improved military capacity, intelligence-led operations, technology deployment and coordinated responses to emerging threats.
The council’s spokesperson, Dele Alake, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, saying the plan would align defence priorities, operational requirements, capability development and expenditure with the country’s current and anticipated security challenges.
He said the initiative was part of Tinubu’s determination to address the 17-year security crisis, adding that the administration’s military operations had resulted in the elimination of more than 15,000 Boko Haram terrorists and bandits in the last three years.
Alake also said more than 130,000 Boko Haram fighters and their dependants had surrendered through Operation Safe Corridor, the Federal Government’s rehabilitation programme for repentant insurgents.
He described the figures as evidence of the administration’s two-pronged approach of sustained military operations and non-kinetic interventions to tackle insecurity.
As part of efforts to strengthen military manpower and operational coverage, Alake said Tinubu had created four new Army divisions and restructured existing military formations to decentralise operations and enable troops to respond more swiftly to security threats.
The President, he added, had approved the establishment of two additional Army depots in Osogbo, Osun State, and Amasiri-Edda, Ebonyi State, to expand military training capacity.
The two facilities are designed to accommodate 6,000 recruits each, giving them a combined capacity to train 12,000 soldiers at a time.
Alake disclosed that 5,210 recruits were already undergoing training at the Osogbo depot.
He said the administration had also approved the recruitment of an additional 28,000 soldiers to strengthen the military’s presence on the ground, alongside 50,000 new police officers to reinforce internal security and policing capacity.
The statement further highlighted the construction of a 700-unit military barracks in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, as part of investments in personnel welfare and operational infrastructure.
According to Alake, the facility is intended to provide military personnel with improved accommodation and operational support, while strengthening the military’s presence in the area.
He said the Five-Year Strategic Defence Operations Plan would ensure that investments in the defence sector were guided by identified threats, operational requirements and national priorities.
The framework is also expected to strengthen combat readiness, address critical capability gaps, optimise available resources and minimise unnecessary expenditure and wastage.
