CDS: Nigeria has received all Super Tucano fighter jets

The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor, has confirmed the receipt of all the 12 A-29 Super Tucano fighter jets from the US.

The CDS spoke on Thursday during the ministerial briefing organised by the presidential communications team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said that the military ought to have taken delivery of the remaining six on 24 September, but a few issues, including weather delayed it till September 28, 2021.

The CDS, while reacting to allegation of harsh treatment of the people of the South East by security agencies deployed in the area to maintain peace, said the military didn’t embark on discriminatory engagement against the people of the zone.

He said despite the military engagement in the South East, he had led other discussions with people of the area.

Irabor also dissociated the military from Sheikh Ahmad Gumi who had been leading negotiations with bandits.

He, however, said that the military would not prevent anyone from playing their part in the bid to tame the menace of insecurity in the country.

He said the military would not tolerate a situation when such persons began to work at cross purposes with the objectives of the security agencies.

He said while Nigerians have the right to pass their views to the government, they must not do so through the use of violence.

“If anyone thinks they can try the armed forces, let him try the shape of the armed forces,” he warned.

The CDS, while speaking on the alarm raised by the Afenifere that bandits had infiltrated Abuja, urged Nigerians to see it as just a social media report.

On the location of the bandits, he said they were largely concentrated in the North West despite the recent movement to the North Central by some of them.

He, however, said the military had scaled up operations to deal with them.