Theater Commander decorates 80 personnel, others for outstanding performance in N/East

By Hamza Suleiman

Maiduguri, Oct. 1, 2022

Maj.-Gen. Christopher Musa, the Theater Commander, North East Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Hadin Kai, has decorated officers, soldiers and journalists with gallantry medals for their outstanding performance in the counter insurgency campaign.

The theatre commander also presented letters of honour and commendation to five officers of Operation Hadin Kai JTF, who distinguished themselves and demonstrated exceptional bravery, dedication and commitment in the fight against Boko Haram insurgents.

Musa said that the awardees were from the Army, Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Navy, Police, Department of State Service (DSS), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), the Correctional Service, Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Civil Defence and the Civilian JTF.

Other recipients included journalists who have demonstrated critical roles in their reportage towards the fight against terrorism in the region.

“They included Hamza Suleiman of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Ndahi Inusa of Vanguard Newspapers, Haruna Dauda of VOA, Sadiq Abubakar of Blueprint Newspapers, Patrick Mark of AIT, Timothy Olanrewaju of The Sun Newspapers and Ahmed Mari of Champion Newspapers.

Others were Hassan Ibrahim of Daily Trust Newspapers, Maimuna Garba of NTA Network Centre, Jesse Tafida of TVC, and Abdulkareem Haruna of HumAngle Online Newspaper.

While presenting the medals and awards to the recipients, Musa charged them to continue to display their professionalism to end the war while the Nigerian Army will continue to cater adequately for their welfare.

“We as people of Operation Hadin Kai who are building this nation together where peace and justice reins, saddled our fatherland with love, strength and faith bounded by freedom and unity shall continue to conquer.

“On behalf of His Excellency, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, President Muhammadu Buhari, I wish to congratulate everyone for us recording another milestone, which is the sixty second anniversary of our independence and earning the medal of honour for our participation and gallantry.

“Operation Hadin Kai is a joint Operation which is designed for every one of us to play a role in ending all forms of insecurity in the North East. It consists of military, para-military, government and non-governmental organisations, the civil populace and the law-abiding citizens.

“The Operation was established in order to restore law and order, extinguish all flames and end all forms of terrorism and criminality in North Eastern Nigeria by kinetic and most importantly non-kinetic operations,” he said.

He added that the operations are being conducted in Sambisa Forest, the Tumbuktu triangle and the Mandara Mountains for protecting people’s lives and property.

He confirmed that over 60,300 communities and captives were liberated and rescued from the forest and Lake Chad region.

Musa however called on remnants of Boko Haram terrorists to come out from their hideouts and embrace the amnesty programme of the federal government, which is aimed at rehabilitation and reintegration of repentant terrorists back into society.