BY ABDULLAHI ISAH, MAIDUGURI
The theater commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Lucky Irabor has said peace is priceless and urged participants at the one day Military-Civil relations workshop to work hard to sustain the peace the North-East is witnessing.
The theater commander, who made the call at the one day Military-Civil relations forum held at the Banquet Hall of the Borno state Hotels Saturday in Maiduguri said everybody in the North-East knows the difference between peace and war, hence the need for all to sustain the peace the region is enjoying now.
“This meeting is convened to chart a new course to sustain the peace we are enjoying now. As we in Operation Lafiya Dole know, security is a collective business that should not be left to the military alone. I urge the participants in this meeting to open up and contribute positively on how best we will sustain the peace we earned through dedication and commitment”, General Irabor stated.
Earlier in his welcome address, the chairman Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Babasheik Haruna said the meeting will afford opportunity to cement the Military Civil relations in the fight against insurgency.
He assured the gathering that the media and NUJ in particular is ready to partner with the military and other security operatives to sustain the peace in Borno, North-East and the country at large.
In his paper presentation titled “Enhancing civil military relationship in Borno” Dr. Abubakar Muazu of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri said human rights activists, journalists, religious and traditional institutions and individuals are important in any campaign against terrorism, therefore there is need to consider ways of relating with them.
The university Don said “the youth Volunteers popularly known as Civilian JTF have demonstrated what they can achieve with honest participation in securing their communities, as they can easily identify the Boko Haram elements and have vast knowledge of the terrain they are operating in.”
He said the military is one institution that has largest core of experts in strategic studies; hence there is the need to draw a strategy of engagement with civilians on regular basis, so as to bridge and pull down whatever walls of suspicions that exist
