•As S/Africa hails DICON reforms, modernisation
Senator Iroegbu in Abuja
The troops of Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) on Thursday captured the boundary town of Damasak in northern Borno, which is one of the last frontiers of Boko Haram terrorists.
The Chief Military Public Information Officer, MNJTF, Col. Muhammad Dole, disclosed this in a statement, saying that the troops have also cleared the terrorists from the surrounding villages.
“In continuation with clearance operation of the towns and villages by MNJTF, the troops of the Sector 4 in Diffa (Niger) have successfully cleared Dutse Village, captured and occupied Damasak town today (Thursday) by 1000hrs,” he stated.
Dole said that the forces are coordinating to stabilise the immediate environs.
According to him, the troops fought their way into the town with close air support by combined air operation from MNJTF member states.
“While Operation Lafiya Dole is conducting operation to link up with sector 4 at the location,” he said, the troops’ morale remains very high.
In another development, the South Africa Secretary of Defence and Military Veterans, Dr. Sam Gulube, has commended what he described as the giant stride and great potential of Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) to emerge as a powerful military industrial complex in Africa.
Gulube in a statement yesterday by the Public Relations Officer, DICON, Maj. Emmanuel Adeniyi, said that the Corporation was at the cross road of history judging from its current efforts to reposition itself to meet the ordnance needs of the Nigerian Armed Forces and other security agencies.
He made these observations when he led delegation of participants in an inaugural seminar and exhibition of Nigeria- South Africa Defence Industries (NIGSA 2016) held at the National Defence College Abuja, to DICON’s Ordnance Factories Kakuri, Kaduna.
According to him, the importance of their visit to DICON became real because they came at a time when the corporation was reorganizing itself coming up with new logo, vision and mission aimed at increasing the tempo of military industrial development with measurable success.
He said: “Nigeria and South Africa has lots of things in common it therefore becomes necessary to work together considering each other’s comparative advantages in terms of military products.
“Our direction in our collective efforts to collaborate should be towards a specialized areas based on each country’s specific requirement.”
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