The Defence Minister made this known during his operational and assessment visit to the Headquarters Theater Command Operation Hadin Kai, in Maiduguri on Friday.

This was made known by the Army Director of Public Relations, Onyema Nwachukwu, on Saturday, in a statement titled, ‘Operation Hadin Kai: Troops to get more equipment – HMOD’.

Magashi stated that the visit to the theatre is for the assessment of facilities and to promote operations across the country.

During the visit, the Minister appreciated the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), for providing requisite logistics support to prosecute the war against insurgency in the North East.

“We are fully committed to providing all the necessary resources to enable you to do your job professionally to the best of your ability. We have all seen your commitment and we are proud of you,” the statement quoted Magashi as saying.

He expressed optimism that success is near and that with sustained determination and commitment, the insurgency will be brought to an end. He commended the overall performance of the Nigerian Military in the fight against insurgency in the North East.

The infected Generals reportedly had contact with the deceased during the Chief of Army Staff’s annual conference 2020, in Abuja which was cancelled after the death of Irefin. 

The conference was attended by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, the Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi; and GOCs from nearly all the army divisions nationwide. They were all directed to go isolation thereafter, leading to the COAS not being able to attend the wedding of his son in Abuja on Friday, December 11. 

Some of the infected GOCs and principal officers were being treated at the COVID-19 isolation centre, University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Abuja. Some of the patients were also being quarantined at other isolation centres in the Federal Capital Territory.

The Minister said this when he appeared on Channels TV on Thursday, December 10. He said the Buhari administration has subdued Boko Haram, and urged Nigerians to appreciate the government’s effort.

He said “The problem of this country is that we always forget too soon. Look in 2015 backwards, 2014, 2013; if you remember the situation in this country. In Kano, 200 people were massacred in the mosque. The Emir of Kano was also attacked. The road from Kano to Kaduna and Abuja were impassable. We had over 20 roadblocks from Kaduna to Abuja. It takes you almost 15 hours to reach where you are coming from. Even in Abuja, there were bombings. Everywhere in Nigeria in those years, you find that there were commotions, no security, people can’t even move. When this government came, you know what we did. In Borno state, about 20 local governments were under capture by Boko Haram. But as soon as Buhari came, they were all subdued and we took over all these things and we even said we technically defeated this Boko Haram. No piece of land is occupied by Boko Haram in Borno state. The only thing normally with the kind of insurgent operation is that they want to surprise you, embarrass you, and do whatever they think that would attract international news or the national news or cause commotion within the environment they operate. And that is what they have been doing, and that is why we are trying very hard to adopt tactics and other forms of operations in order to stop this kind of people embarrassing this country.  We are putting in place everything you can think of, tactically and operationally, in order to return this country to a very peaceful country we know it. At the moment, most people think because of the sporadic attacks here and there, we lost control or we are not doing our best. Most of you know the problem with this country. The armed forces are overstretched. The other thing that we may have gotten, we are not supported by some of these countries we call our friends. They are not ready to give us what we need — with the money we have and everything. But certainly, what I am trying to say is that Nigeria is better than what we were seven years ago.”