Chief of Army Staff-Lt. Gen. Buratai
BY ABDULLAHI ISAH, MAIDUGURI
As Christians world over celebrate, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt. General Tukur Buratai has visited troops on the battle field fighting Boko Haram insurgency in Mafa, the headquarters of Mafa local Government area of Borno state where he addressed them and had breakfast with the troops.
While addressing them, General Buratai, who led other top army officers from the Defence headquarters to visit troops of the 112 Task Force Battalion deployed for the counter-insurgency operations said “I initiated the visit to celebrate Christmas with troops at the war front in order to boost your morale in the fight against Boko Haram insurgents.”
He said “this is just one of my numerous visits to you. I have been here on two, three, occasions including this one. I want say congratulations, for a job well done. I have received a very thorough brief from your 2/ic, who stood in for your commanding officer. He has told me the brave exploits you have undertaken in your area of operation.
“ I just want to urge you to keep it up, we are all proud of you, the entire country is proud of you and indeed Mr. President and the commander- in -Chief is proud of you. Keep up the very good job you have been doing. We will continue doing our best to ensure that your logistics is catered for and your general welfare is also taken care of. Well, this is not an occasion for too much talk,” the COAS added.
General Buratai said “As we celebrate the Christmas and we also approach the new year, I want to wish you merry Christmas and happy new year. I just sent my message across to you, towards the beginning of Operation Rescue Finale. It has been quite successful, I want to congratulate you and we still keep our promise of what will happen once we enter 2017. We will make sure that we do the necessary re-organisation to make the operation much stronger and to have a very good relief system for everybody. So on this note, I want say well done”.
On arrival, the Army chief inspected a guard of honour mounted by the personnel of the 112 Task Force Battalion. Thereafter, he held closed door interactions with field commanders of the task force, before joining them to take break fast.
