By Chesa Chesa
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has announced that President Bola Tinubu’s Five-Year Strategic Defence Operations Plan, designed to tackle insecurity across the country, is ready.
The council said the plan would strengthen Nigeria’s security architecture, improve military effectiveness and ensure a coordinated response to emerging security threats, including terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other forms of criminality.
In a statement issued on Sunday by its spokesperson, Dele Alake, the council described the initiative as a major component of Tinubu’s determination to end the 17-year scourge of insecurity in parts of the country.
It said the framework would align defence priorities, operational requirements, capability development and expenditure with Nigeria’s current and anticipated security challenges.
Highlighting the administration’s security achievements in the last three years, the council disclosed that military operations had led to the elimination of more than 15,000 Boko Haram terrorists and bandits.
It also said more than 130,000 Boko Haram fighters and their dependents had surrendered through Operation Safe Corridor, the Federal Government’s rehabilitation programme for repentant insurgents.
According to the council, the figures demonstrate the administration’s two-pronged strategy of sustained military operations and non-kinetic interventions to address insecurity.
On military expansion, the statement said Tinubu had created four new Army divisions and restructured existing military formations to expand operational coverage, decentralise operations and enable troops to respond more swiftly to security threats.
It added that the President had approved the establishment of two additional Army depots in Osogbo, Osun State, and Amasiri-Edda, Ebonyi State, to expand military training capacity and accelerate the recruitment of soldiers.
Each depot, according to the statement, can accommodate 6,000 recruits at a time, bringing their combined capacity to 12,000.
The council disclosed that 5,210 recruits were currently undergoing training at the Osogbo facility.
It said the expansion was expected to reduce recruitment turnaround time and increase the number of soldiers available for deployment.
The statement further disclosed that Tinubu had approved the recruitment of an additional 28,000 soldiers to strengthen military presence and operational effectiveness across the country.
It added that the President had also approved the recruitment of 50,000 additional police officers to reinforce internal security, improve policing capacity and strengthen responses to criminal activities.
On infrastructure and personnel welfare, the council cited the ongoing 700-unit military barracks project in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, as part of efforts to provide personnel with improved accommodation and operational support.
It said the project was designed to provide military personnel with a professional living and working environment, alongside essential military infrastructure.
On the strategic defence plan, the council said the Federal Government was adopting a more coordinated, intelligence-led, technology-enabled and prevention-oriented approach to national security.
It added that investments in the defence sector would be guided by clearly identified threats, operational requirements and national priorities.
According to the statement, the plan is expected to strengthen combat readiness, address critical capability gaps, optimise available resources and minimise unnecessary expenditure and wastage.
