A former Provost Marshall of the Nigerian Army, Maj-Gen Pat Akem-Vingir (retd), says the military needs at least 500,000 personnel to eliminate terror groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

“Our army is small. We need to have an army of at least 500,000 personnel,” the retired general said on the Friday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.

The Nigerian military has about 230,000 personnel, according to the ranking platform, Global Fire Power. Maj-Gen Akem-Vingir said much of the successes of the military in the theatre of war in Nigeria’s North-East zone have been lost because of the lack of manpower to hold the ground after clearance operations.

He said until there is sufficient manpower to secure territories after terrorist dislodgement, the blood-thirsty marauders would continue to regain those places.

He said, “When you are fighting insurgency, you must capture ground and hold it. It takes troops to do that. When you capture ground, then you build and hold so that people can resume their lives and there will be security but if you are clearing areas and you are not holding, then they (terrorists) will come back.”

The retired general also said the government should not recognise the newly formed terror group Lakurawa wreaking havoc in the North-West geopolitical zone of the country.

Maj-Gen Akem-Vingir described the Lakurawa group as “one small tiny group” seeking attention.

He said, “We shouldn’t recognise them, we shouldn’t even discuss them because they will think they are being noticed now and want to do more.

“They are one small tiny group that shouldn’t even get out attention; that should be swatted away – that shouldn’t be given any energy to feed upon. They are seeking attention.”

He urged the government to empower the military with the right equipment, training, and the “full authority” to crush the enemies of the state.

The former army provost said, “The president needs to give the instruction to security agencies in the open where Nigerians will hear it.

“When he does that openly, and tell them I want to see your needs on my table in two weeks because, without security, you can’t be talking about governance.”