The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja (NAM), has assured of Nigerian Army readiness to tackle the rising threats in the use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) by Boko Haram and other terrorists. General Lagbaja stated this on Tuesday in Makurdi at the Counter Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED)/Combat Engineering Workshop with the theme: Mobility Support: A Panacea for Operational Efficiency of the Nigerian Army.

Represented by the Commander 4 Special Forces, Maj Gen Hilary Nzan, COAS  lamented the resurgence of Person Borne Improvised Explosive Devices attacks in the North East and sued for the need to appraise the effectiveness of the current strategy against the terrorist groups and what needed to be done differently to effectively mitigate the IED threats. 

“The overall objective of this year’s workshop is to mitigate the challenges to enable effective engineer mobility support to Nigerian Army operations. This entails analysing the trends of IEDs in the theatre of operations and understanding the impediments posed by the terrain to aid in route planning for military operations and effective employment of engineer assets to achieve desired outcomes,” General Lagbaja said. 

He noted that the objectives of the workshop aligned with his desire to defeat insurgency by ensuring that the troops had freedom of action through effective engineer mobility support.  He also disclosed that the defeat of insurgency and other acts of criminality remained his top priority, stressing that the procurement of equipment and realistic training of personnel were embarked upon in a sustained effort to shore up troops’ morale and fighting spirit through the provision of requisite equipment. 

He further disclosed that the army had embarked on a massive acquisition drive, stating that some of the equipment acquired included Vailon handheld detectors,  Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP), Troops Carrying Vehicles  (TCVs), Husky vehicles, Armour Personnel Carriers (APCs) as well as Unmanned Area Vehicles (UAV). He added that efforts were also ongoing for the purchase of some husky vehicle-mounted ground penetration radar systems among several other equipment.

In his remarks, the Commander Corp of Engineers (CCE), Maj Gen Philip Eromosele,

stated that the recommendations of the C-IED Workshop 2023 were largely implemented by the Army Headquarters (AHQ).  Major General Eromosele said that in a bid to address the menace of IEDs across the theatres of operations, the Nigerian Army Engineers (NAE) developed the C-IED Strategic Plan 2024 to 2028, stressing that one of the goals of the roadmap was to support an attack on the adversaries IED network. 

“While a lot has been achieved in defeating the device line of CIED operations, the same cannot be said with attacking the terrorist’s IED network as the threat persists.  Most recently, there has been a resurgence of Person Borne Improvised Explosive Devices attacks as well as IED attacks on critical infrastructure.  To this end, this workshop will appraise current efforts at attacking the Boko Haram terrorists/ISWAP IED network. It will also look at the impact of the North East terrain on military operations as well as efficient employment of combat engineering assets towards enhancing mobility support to Nigeria Army operations,” CCE  said.   

He said that the Nigerian Army Engineers were saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that the IEDs were ineffective against the troops and operations through sound training, proper planning and use of correct equipment.

The climax of the event was the presentation of lecturers, souvenirs, and group photographs.

NDUBUISI OKEZIE 

Captain 

Acting Assistant Director 

Army Public Relations 

Headquarters Nigerian Army Engineers 

6  AUGUST 2024