News

February 5, 2024

How villagers hid weapons after troops killed terrorists — CDS

Army

By John Alechenu

The Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, General Christopher Musa, has revealed how villagers hid guns after troops killed some terrorists in the Northeastern part of the country.

Musa, who made the revelation in a 30 minutes interview on Trust TV yesterday, said this happened when he was the Theatre Commander of Operation Hadin Kai, OPHK, in the region.

He said:   “When I was a theater commander in the North East, Harden-Kai, for 19 months – sometimes terrorists would come to a village with weapons to launch an attack and we would kill them, but before we would get there, all the weapons would have been hidden.  And they would dig them out and attack us from the rear.”

The defence chief urged religious leaders and traditional rulers to revisit the country’s value system as part of efforts to tackle insecurity.

“These are things that were alien to us. Unfortunately, we are losing family values. You would find out that even within a family, a brother will kidnap his younger sister and tell their parents to pay.

“It is that bad because the society has been monetised. Everybody thinks that when he gets money, his issues are solved. Those are the things we need to address.

“Family values have gone down; that’s why I appeal to religious leaders and traditional rulers to revisit our value system.

”We must put emphasis on bringing God, faith and sincerity in our lives. Somebody mentioned that Nigerians are religious but not godly,” the CDS said.