The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, on Sunday, tasked troops of the Exercise Crocodile Smile IV on diligence and hard work.

Speaking when he visited the troop at Tarkwa Bay, Lagos, Buratai urged the officers to take the exercise seriously as it would help them when the need arose in real life.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the exercise was aimed at enhancing troop’s operational proficiency, inter-agency cooperation and civil-military coordination.

The exercise was also aimed at curbing prevalent contemporary security challenges such as kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism, ritual killing and pipeline vandalism within its area of responsibility.

The event is scheduled from Nov. 19 to Dec. 23.

 

“It is good to know that this training exercise is happening in this era of insurgency and extremism.

“We must continue to train, support civil authority, when the situation arises we must take the exercise seriously.

“We must learn and continue to learn, if you train hard now, when the time requires real operation, it will be easy,” he said.

He urged the troop to follow judiciously everything taught.

“I expect everyone to follow the exercise seriously. I am here to see you and I must say that 81 Division is doing well,” he said.

He also commended the 81 Division for its achievement within the period that the exercise began.

“Let me congratulate the troop especially on the civil-military relation, the medical, educational outreach has been well conducted, the anti-criminal activities has achieved a good result,” he said.

NAN reports that the Army Chief visited the Troop Operation room, Information Centre and the Tarkwa Bay Bunkers.

 

(NAN)