The Nigerian Army has stated that it is on high alert to defend the country’s territorial integrity against any form of external aggression.

According to the Army, Nigerians should be rest assured of its capacity to counter threats that may be launched against the country.

The Chief of Military-Civil Affairs, Maj Gen Gold Chibuisi, disclosed this at the weekend in Akure, Ondo State capital, during the Nigerian Army Civil-Military Cooperation quarterly media chat attended by journalists, media executives, communication experts, senior military officers, and heads of sister security agencies across the state.

With the theme of the media chat tagged ‘Military-Media Collaboration: Panacea for Enhanced National Security and Development’, Chibuisi, who was fielding questions from newsmen, stated that the Army has continued to build its capacity against other threats.

He said, “Despite what you see, the Army remains prepared in case there are threats to territorial integrity to respond. There are no tasks that will be relinquished because of engagement elsewhere.”

While discussing the deployment of military personnel to highways, the army chief revealed that such measures became expedient based on threats and security assessments within the region.

Chibuisi emphasised that the service chief had been stressing the need for jointness in security operations, particularly that the nature of security challenges facing the country is beyond what a single service can handle.

“All the deployments you are seeing now will continue to be reviewed. If the need to withdraw in certain areas arises, it will be done in due time, based on an assessment of progress in the initial threat that necessitated the call-out of the military. The Army will pull back for other agencies to continue. However, for you to see them on the streets means that the threat is still present, and the other agencies are unable to handle it alone. So, in due course, it will be reviewed.”

Earlier, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Olufemi Oluyede, who was represented by General Officer Commanding (GOC) 2 Division, Major General Obinna Onubogu, called for stronger collaboration between the military and the media as part of efforts to address the country’s growing and complex security challenges.

Oluyede stated that the military will continue to confront the nation’s security challenges through both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches and emphasised that “the great debate on whether the pen is mightier than the sword is over; the pen has won the debate, and it is accepted that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.”