DHQ: Operation Positive Identification Will Track Fleeing Terrorists

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) at the weekend rallied support
from the public for the controversial Operation Positive
Identification, saying it was launched to track fleeing terrorists
and not to violate human rights of Nigerians.

Besides, it is optimistic of a quicker end to the insurgency in
the North-east following the acquisition of helicopter gunships,
which will give it a monopoly of aerial power over the insurgents
and change the tide in favour of the military.

It also described the killing of the leader of the Islamic State
in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, by US Special
Forces as a sign that terrorists in the North-east are not
invincible and would be extinguished if the military is given
adequate support.

Defence spokesman, Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, while fielding
questions from THISDAY on the insurgency war and the killing of the
ISIS leader, allayed fears of the public over the exercise in which
the military would be demanding means of identification from
Nigerian passers-by, either in vehicles or on the road.

He said: “Operation Positive Identification was conducted in the
North-east theatre of operations. When the terrorists were routed
in several encounters that we had, they began to fizzle out. There
was information put out there that these people were beginning to
escape and that people should watch out.

“Quite a good number of them had infiltrated the society,
therefore creating sleeper cells within the populace and the
theatre felt that it was very important to conduct an operation to
be able to identify the fleeing terrorists.”

On the helicopter gunships, he said the morale had risen among
troop since their deployment to aid soldiers on the ground in
routing the insurgents.

It said the military was determined to rout the terrorists.

According to Nwachukwu, while the strategy is not designed to
compromise the operations of the Air Force (Air Task Force), it
would be a game changer in defeating insurgency.

The Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General
Olusegun Adeniyi, had recently said the army required attack
helicopters to end the war in three months.

The defence spokesman agreed with the position of the theatre
commander. “It is a valid position; it is a very strong position.
If you look at the North-east operation, it is a very large area.
It is like three countries put together.

“It is a very vast environment and most of the time, the land
troops traverse the terrain, using soft-skinned vehicle mostly,
reason being that we have not been able to procure military
hardware that resist improvised explosive devices and other
incendiaries that could easily destroy soft-skin hardware.

“So, it’s a thing of advantage to the troops in the theatre to
be able to carry out special troop insertions behind enemy lines,
to be able traverse the theatre of operations without exposure. The
IED attacks by the insurgents, you know that most of the area is a
desert environment so it is easy to plant IEDs anywhere without
detection.

“We have not been able to acquire for instance IED detecting
devices with ground penetrating capability. What we have for
instance are those that could be ahead of the troops advancing and
at times it clogs the wheel of advancing mobile troops. It is going
to be of enormous advantage to have those attack helicopters”.

He said helicopter gunships would “aid insertion of troops with
very minimal, reasonable timing. It will provide close support at
any time for ground troops who are conducting offensives. It could
also provide lift capacity during an ambush. They could be called
upon and very quickly respond to such calls to provide support for
troops under attack”.

On the timeline for ending the war in the North-east, Nwachukwu
was non-committal, saying that the nature of the war does not give
room for such a projection.

“I don’t think it is responsible of me to begin to make
projections around the theatre of war in the North-east. I am not
in a position to give a timeline and you need to understand the
fact that the enemy is equally trained.

“It is not a scorched earth thing where everything is wiped out.
If they surrender today just like what we had in the past where you
had a good number of the foot soldiers of Boko Haram surrendering
to us and that was what reduced their capacity and that was what
decimated it”, he said.

He recalled that after ISIS was defeated, they decided to align
with Boko Haram as ISWAP to save the face of terrorism in the
global arena.

“So what we are saying is that it will not be appropriate to say
that the insurgency will come to an end at a particular time. I
can’t give a timeline; I don’t think it will be reasonable to do
so,” he added.

The DHQ also lauded the killing of al-Baghdadi by US Special
Forces, saying it shows that terrorists are not invincible.

United States President Donald Trump had last week confirmed
that the ISIS leader was killed October 26 during a daring,
two-hour operation in his compound in north-west Syria.

He detonated bombs in a suicide vest as he fled the scene,
killing himself and his three sons.

An earlier defeat of the group by a coalition of forces led by
the United States, had forced splinter groups, including ISWAP, to
relocate to other regions.

The DHQ told THISDAY that the collaboration by ISWAP and Boko
Haram in Nigeria was a face-saving measure by a group that has long
been defeated.

Nwachukwu said: “It is a good thing that it (killing of ISIS
leader) happened and it goes to show and prove that the terrorists
are not invincible -granted the fact that they are there to create
fear and terror amongst the populace. They are there to use fear
and terror to push whatever agenda or struggle they have, mostly
illegitimate ones.

“They are not invincible. The fact that they can detonate
Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and kill themselves goes to
show that they have no value for human lives even their own lives.
They have no value for the society or sanctity of life.

“It is proving not only to Nigeria and the international
community that these people are people that are not invincible. The
Nigerian Armed Forces will do everything in its capacity to ensure
that we bring these people to their knees”.

He, however, noted that terrorist groups maintain a chain of
command hence leadership succession is usually immediate.

“We should understand the fact that there is a chain of command
just like the way the terrorists operate. They operate in various
cells and they operate a chain of command and the moment the leader
goes out there is succession, the succession is immediate,” he
said.