Military Commended for US Bomber Jets Purchase to Fight Terror

Sunday Okobi and Emmanuel Ella

Concerned Professionals Congress (CPC) has lauded the Nigerian military led by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin, for securing the recent approval of the United States to sell 12 bomber jets worth $600 million to aid the Nigerian military’s current operations in the North-east.

CPC said the gesture would go a long way in driving the strategic defence mechanism to end the war against terror as well as tackle other security threats across the country.

The civil advocacy group in a statement issued yesterday by its Chief Media Strategy, Mr. Emeka Nwankpa, and made available to THISDAY, said it was delightful with the news of the final approval by the US Department of State to sell 12 A-29 Super Tucano fighter planes with associated parts, training, facilities and weapons in aid of the fight Boko Haram terrorists.

The group said it was particularly impressed by the decision of US State Department to approve the sale to the Nigerian military despite what it called the “sustained hateful conspiracies and avalanche of deliberate, malicious and mischievous campaigns of calumny by certain anti-Nigerian interests whose main motives still remain shrouded in mystery.”

CPC noted that notwithstanding the difficult situation, the Chief of Defence Staff-led military had tasked itself to devise creative, home-grown and fool-proof strategies anchored on its resolve and resilience to successfully protect the Nigerian sovereignty against territorial aggression such as attacks by terrorists and insurgents in the North-east, militants in the Niger Delta region and other national security threats.

Nwankpa, in the statement, contended that the gesture by the US would go a long way in boosting the morale of the Nigerian war commanders and the troops whose courage and gallantry he described as “incredible and amazing,” pointing out that the Nigerian military’s current high global rating in counter-terrorism efforts might have swayed the U.S particularly against the backdrop of an alleged misinterpretation in certain quarters recently of a U.S Bureau on Counter-terrorism 2016 Country Report which lampooned Nigeria’s security forces as lacking in co-ordination, among other complaints.

“It is therefore heart-warming to note that the US State Department chose to rise above these obviously false negative narratives against Nigeria to finally approve this sale of 12 bomber planes worth almost $600 million at a time that the days of terror in the North-east are numbered,’’ he said.

The group also expressed gratitude to the nation’s global and sub-regional partners in the African Union, the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for their consistent support and solidarity.

The group noted “that the CDS-led Defence team has left none in doubt about Nigeria’s status as a leading military force in Africa and the sub-region

‘’Today, the Nigerian military under Olonisakin and the service chiefs have used synergy, intelligence and information sharing to secure and stabilize the nation to become the envy of the world.”