The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Farouk Yahaya, has said that the Nigerian Army platforms deployed in operations against adversaries are yielding positive outcome.
Yahaya disclosed this on Saturday at Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State during “Exercise Vulcan Glow Vlll“, the annual one-sided field exercise staged by the Nigerian Army Corps of Artillery (NACA).
The training involves competitions by artillery formations in various aspects of tactics, techniques and procedures.
Yahaya said the exercise was the highest level of training by the artillery where their personnel and assets, guns and other resources are deployed and test-fired.
He said that training was key in the military and it was only through it that new skills and competencies were acquired against adversaries.
“It is training alongside deployment of equipment as provided by the President and Commander-in-Chief, that is seeing us through successes, along with other services and sister security agencies.
“Training all across the engineering, armoured, signal, artillery and other corps of the Nigerian Army has been heightened up so that we can continually improve and rejig our operations and deploy more appropriate skills at all times against our adversaries,“ Yahaya said.
The army chief said that the deployment of the platforms, skills and competencies would provide peace and security in the country, while also providing an enabling environment for the upcoming 2023 general elections.
He assured Nigerians of the army’s resilience and doggedness in dealing with bandits, kidnappers, terrorists and other criminal elements.
“The earlier the criminal elements realised the need for peace and development, the better because we will not relent in dealing with them in the language they understood.
“We are assuring the public that we will not let them down, will also not betray the confidence reposed on us by the Commander-in-Chief,” Yahaya said.
Earlier, the Artillery Corps Commander, Maj.-Gen Tari-Timiye Gagariga, explained that Exercise Vulcan Glow was being conducted with the aim of rekindling the old tradition where formations moved guns and associated equipment from rear home establishment to designated military training areas to conduct a variety of artillery manouvres.
He said that the exercise emphasised on collaboration with all stakeholders in locally repairing equipment and test-firing them.
Gagariga commended the COAS for supporting the Artillery Corps towards the successful conduct of the event.
Highlight of the exercise included fire power demonstrations and firing competitions in which the 34 Artillery Brigade emerged as the winner.