US, UK offering Nigeria technical support against B’Haram – Military

The Nigerian military has been enjoying technical and logistics
support from the United Kingdom and the United States of America in
its fight against Boko Haram terrorists, PUNCH reports.

A highly-placed military source told our correspondent in Abuja,
on Friday, that details of the nature of the support were
classified but gave the areas of such assistance as intelligence
gathering and analysis, training and equipment.

The source stated, “With the advent of this administration, we
have had improvements in the level of support we are getting from
our foreign partners. The support is mainly technical. It is in the
areas of supply of arms and ammunition; sale of aircraft and
accessories as well as training.

“I am not at liberty to give you details because most of these
things are highly classified for obvious reasons. Making them
public could jeopardise our operations in the theatre.”

In response to a question on whether the military requested the
foreign support, the source said, “As the military, our laws do not
permit us to go around begging for foreign help, no matter how much
we need it.

“We are in a democracy; and in a democracy, such a
responsibility rests with the political class. Only our political
leaders can make such a call. Ours is to state our areas of
critical needs through our chain of command.

“Just like it is when we require military hardware, we make our
request to the civil authorities; it goes through appropriation
before we get it.”

In a related development, the Director, Army Public Relations,
Brig. Gen. Sani Usman, has reiterated the call of the Chief of Army
Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, on the media to be mindful of
national security in reporting the ongoing anti-terrorism war
against the Boko Haram.

He told SUNDAY PUNCH that the military required the support of
all citizens, especially the media, in the task of securing
Nigeria’s territorial integrity.

In response to a question on what was being done to secure
Geidam and its environs from further attacks, Usman said, “I must
inform you that nobody will disclose operational plans or strategy
publicly. I therefore cannot imagine you getting such an
answer.”