Military Needs 500,000 Personnel To Defeat Insurgency – Ex-Army Provost

According to Maj-Gen Pat Akem-Vingir (retd), former Nigerian Army provost general, the military requires at least 500 000 personnel to defeat terrorist organizations 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. The lack of manpower to hold the ground after clearance operations has caused a lot of the military’s successes in Nigeria’s North-East region to be lost, according to Maj. Gen. Akem-Vingir.

The blood-thirsty marauders would continue to seize those areas until there is enough manpower to secure them after terrorists were killed.

He said, “When you are fighting insurgency, you must capture ground and hold it. That requires troops to accomplish that. When you seize control of the ground, you build and hold it so that people can resume their lives and there will be security, but if you are clearing areas and you are not holding, they (terrorists) will return.

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The retired general added that the government should not accept responsibility for Lakurawa, a newly formed terrorist organization, wreaking havoc in the nation’s North-West geopolitical zone.

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.

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

Source: Channels TV