The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has urged Nigerians not to panic following the use of drones by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (BH/ISWAP) terrorists to attack troops’ locations.
The Director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, said the drones used by the terrorists were not military-graded, hence no need to panic.
General Buba, fielding questions from journalists after a media briefing on Friday, likened the drones to “toys” used by the terrorists to harass troops and not really attacking them.
He, however, assured that the military was doing something about the new trend.
Recall that the terrorists have carried out two failed attacks on troops’ location during the festive period, injuring five soldiers.
General Buba said: “I don’t think that there’s need for any unnecessary panic about the usage of drones by terrorists.”
He explained that, “we are in war against terrorists and against insurgents across our country and all you need to know is not far from what you see happening in Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Hamas and all that. The use of drones in the battlefield is not new.
“Now when we are talking of drones now, please we don’t want unnecessary panic because these are not professional drones, not military-grade drones.”
He continued: “These are toys that they went to buy and found a way to put one or two things on board and use them. How effective were they? They were not effective. Are we doing something about it? Yes, we are.
“Since we now know that this is where their thinking and their thoughts are going, we have to take measures to control such attacks. I don’t call them really attacks, I call them harassments.”
On the issue of a foreign military base in Nigeria, he said there was no such base in the country.
He added that Nigeria has refused to be a ground for proxy war, so it has no foreign base on its territory.
“We don’t have any foreign base. We said this more than one time, we do not have any foreign base in Nigeria. Anyone who is saying that is trying to be mischievous, is trying to be misleading and definitely he has an agenda.
“When it comes to foreign base, we do not have it. Without any country, there is no foreign base in Nigeria to be a ground for proxy war. Okay, we don’t want our country to be a ground for proxy war. You accept one person, the enemy of that person will start to woo you. That is proxy war. We don’t want that.
“So anywhere you hear anybody talking like that, I think they are talking like that as a distraction. I heard one of the African leaders say something like that. That is a distraction from being happy with the problem in this country,” he stated.