Army Opens More Training Schools To Curb Boko Haram

Maj- Gen. Mohammed Abubakar, Commandant, Infantry Corps, Armed Forces Command and Staff College of the Nigerian Army, Jaji, on Friday announced that the Nigerian Army has started a nationwide special training programme on combating insurgency for its officers and men.

Speaking to newsmen in Kaduna at the inauguration of 1 Division Nigerian Army Headquarters Training School, the commandant said the training would improve the basic knowledge and skills of soldiers to enable them effectively curb insurgency.

He asserted that though the training schools have been in existence since the `70s, it became imperative to reopen them to enable the army train the multitude of its soldiers.

“We have introduced different aspects of training as the existing schools cannot cope with the increasing number of soldiers we are recruiting” Abubakar said. “So we deem it necessary to re-establish these schools at each division to help us give basic training for soldiers instead of waiting until they get to training schools in Jaji, Bauchi, Kachia”.  

Responding also, Maj. - Gen. Kenneth Osuji, the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 1 Division, remarked that the schools would expand areas of training of soldiers and officers in each division.

“The establishment of these schools is going to provide the platform for more officers and soldiers to be trained” Osuji said. “We have training schools, but we want as much soldiers to be trained because if we rely on the schools, it will take a longer time for the large number of soldiers and officers to be trained. We have to get the basic training on some specialised skills”.  

Boko Haram sect members have launched several offensive attacks in recent times, especially in the northeastern part of the country, leaving scores of people dead with properties worth billions of naira destroyed in their quest to establish a muslim nation.