I Left the Military in Competent Hands, Says Olonisakin

Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja

Immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin (rtd), said yesterday that he left the leadership of the military in competent hands.

Olonisakin, who was formally pulled out of the military at the Mogadishu Cantonment, Abuja, said under his leadership and with the support of government, the military was transformed from being inexperienced in asymmetric warfare to building enormous capacity and gaining valuable experience in fighting asymmetric threats to the nation.

He said his successor, Major General Lucky Irabor, was involved in all operational and other initiatives under his watch as CDS.

“I wish to state that I am leaving the Armed Forces of Nigeria in the hands of a competent and experienced successor, who apart from being a former commander of the Multinational Joint Task Force, a former Commander Operation Lafiya Dole and a former Chief of Defence Training and Operations, have also been fully involved in all our operational and other initiatives of the Defence Headquarters under my watch.

“I urge you all to continue to work with greater commitment and support to the Chief of Defence Staff and the service chiefs in order to achieve the mandate of addressing the spate of insecurity in our dear country”, he said.

He said the military had moved from fighting conventional warfare to acquisition of cyber warfare capability.

“Our current capacity to defend Nigeria has transited from fighting conventional war on land, sea and air alone, to capacity to also contain threats to the nation in the cybersecurity and information domain.