The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin, has urged Nigerians to be security conscious towards averting suicide bombing on soft target by Boko Haram terrorists.

Olonisakin stated this yesterday in Abuja at the 2015‎ Nigerian Navy Research and development seminar, with the theme; ‘Innovation and Research and Development (R&D): Turning Bright Ideas to Operational Solutions’.

He attributed the high rate of soft target bombings by the Boko Haram insurgents being witnessed in the past couple of months, to the increase pressure on the insurgents in the North-eastern part of the country.

According to him, “The issue of suicide bombings that we have been witnessing is as a result of the pressure on the Boko Haram terrorists in the north east.

“They are now aiming at the soft targets, and Nigerians must be security conscious and report any suspicious movement around them, because security is everybody’s business especially the face we are in now.”

The CDS emphasised that “the pressure have been on terrorists and they are fanning out, and, in the process of fanning out, they are hitting the soft targets.” He however urged members of the public to be wary, security conscious, and as well as report any area where they observe suspicious movement or activities.

When asked about the effort being in place for the rescue of the Chibok girls, the Defence Chief was skeptical, saying: “We are to ensure that everyone that have been probably abducted or even conscripted by the Boko Haram terrorists are brought safely including the Chibok girls. That is our desire and that is what we are working towards.”

Olonisakin however revealed that there was no report concerning Chibok girls presently; adding that was why the military was encouraging research and development in order to improve its efficiency.

The CDS also disclosed that the military was working to come up with a strategy to effectively tackle vandalism, illegal bunkering and every issue associated with oil and gas as it plans to improve the security of the sector.

Earlier, the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, said that the Nigerian Navy Directorate of research and development was established in 2004 with the aim of addressing the immediate problems associated with service’s operational, logistics and technology acquisition, but lamented that it performance had been less inspiring.

Ibas pointed out that “the recurring issue of sustainability of the fleet stood imposingly and staunchly to dispel many doubt on this, and the reasons for this poor outing were not far-fetched as its include; poor resource availability, inadequate coordination of R&D activities in the NN.”

To address the challenges, he noted that the seminar was one of the approaches the navy adopted to purse her inventive intentions and to reposition R&D as the pivot of attaining a technological self reliance.

“The past effort of these initiatives have already triggered appropriate R&D activities in some development objectives contained within the extant Revised NN Transformation plan 2011-2020. The directorate has made a remarkable innovative progress in design, construction, information, technology and training; including the use of alginate extracted from sea weeds to stabilise late rite to produce Compressed Earth Blocks,” he said.

To this end, Ibas challenged the participants that the value of their deliberations during the seminar is expected to form the key determinant for successful transformation of the naval operations. (PRNigeria)

•Photo shows Gen. Olonisakin.

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