Army strengthens defenses against biological, nuclear terrorism

The Nigerian Army has taken steps towards improving its personnel capacity in handling chemical, biological and nuclear terrorism for effective and timely responses to emergencies in operations.

The Chief of Army Staff, Taoreed Lagbaja, said this when he declared closed in Sokoto a one-day seminar on warrior ethos chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear terrorism, drug and substance abuse.

The army chief assured the troops of Operation Hadarin Daji of continuous support in providing needed logistics and guidance for the success of their operations.

He said the seminar is one of the many measures emplaced to mitigate the challenges faced by the troops while operating in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous security environment.

“The Nigerian Army has continued to review its tactics, techniques and procedures in order to come up with both kinetic and non-kinetic strategies to defeat these challenges.

“This seminar was therefore premised on the need to improve the capacity of personnel towards enhancing warrior ethos and the battle-winning mentality. It will also highlight the threats of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear terrorism along with dangers of the substance abuse while executing of your tasks.

”In addition, the prevailing incidence of drug and substance abuse among troops deployed in theatres of operation has become quite worrisome and necessitates troops’ awareness in a bid to enhance combat effectiveness,” he added.

He urged commanders at all levels to continue to come up with innovative ideas to upscale their approaches towards improving man-management and battle readiness, which he said was in line with his Command Philosophy for the army.

The army chief further commended the Department of Army Innovation and Transformation for organising the seminar, which he said would raise necessary operational and situational awareness of the troops and implored them to remain innovative and committed.

(NAN)