Nigeria’s chief of defence staff, Abayomi Olonishakin, on Monday led other service chiefs to a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
The meeting centred on the war against Boko Haram insurgency.
Speaking with state house correspondents at the end of the meeting, Olonisakin explained that the constraints and successes of the operation were reviewed, ahead of the president’s December deadline to defeat Boko Haram.
“We briefed the president on the security situation on ground after a 60-day review and we had to brief him on the challenges to ensure that the mandate we have is properly delivered,” he said.
“Of course, the challenges we are looking at are the issues of probably, the weather as it were and some other logistics that we feel we should have so that the mandate can be quickly delivered.”
On the possibility of an extension to the December deadline, he said: “We have not said that. The mandate is that we should clear Boko Haram from the occupied territories and ensure that we reclaim all the lost grounds. That is exactly what we are doing.
“It is a military operation and military operations have timelines and these timelines, we are working on them assiduously.”
Aliyu Ismaila, permanent secretary at the ministry of defence, said Buhari was happy with the progress report and remained optimistic that the war against insurgency was on track.
“We are here to brief the president on the situation of what armed forces have been doing in the north-east and the south-south. That is exactly what we discussed with Mr. President.
“The directive is that we should continue what we have been doing; and in the next few days, there will be another meeting. But by and large, the president is excited and confident that the leadership of the Nigerian armed forces will do us proud.” .
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