Military Keeps An Eye On Nigeria/Benin Republic Border

General Officer Commanding, 2 Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Ahmad Jibrin, has said that the Army is on a red alert, to ward off any possible Boko Haram infiltration through the nation’s borders with Benin Republic.

The Army boss, who spoke yesterday while receiving a 17-member team from the Indian National Defence College, at the 2 Division’s headquarters at Odogbo Barracks, Ibadan, said his division did not maintain heavy military presence along the borders of Benin because the two countries had enjoyed a long history of cordial relationship and thus did not envisage any external aggression from its neighbours.

He, however, said that the interflow and interactions of the people of both nations has prompted the military to mount increased surveillance, in anticipation that terrorists, with foreign backing, currently locked in battle with the security forces in North eastern part of the country, might attempt to come in and open another front in the South West through the peaceful borders with Benin.

He revealed that the military maintained some forward bases along the borders, which are themselves not far from military formations with full complement of warfare facilities to respond to any eventualities.

The outposts, he said, conduct routine patrols and other military operations. The GOC pledged that the cordial relationship between Nigeria and India would continue to be deepened, describing the Asian country as the best friend of Nigeria in the area of military training, discipline and medical development. According to him, the vestiges of military discipline, which India left in Nigeria when she was invited to set up the Nigerian Defence Academy many years ago, subsisted till date