Nigeria’s Commander-In-Chief, Muhammadu Buhari, has ordered that all military checkpoints dotting the country be dismantled.
The decision was reached during the President’s meeting with service chiefs on his first day at work from the ambience of the presidential villa.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Aliyu Ismaila, made the order known to State House correspondents soon after the meeting.
The ubiquitous checkpoints have served as avenues for some military personnel to extort money from motorists and commuters alike.
There is also the bigger matter of the traffic bottle-necks the road-blocks spawn.
“The President has instructed the Chief of Defence Staff to get the Chief of Army Staff and the Inspector General of Police to remove all the military men along the roads across the country,’’ he said.
Mr. Ismail said the officials came to brief the president on arrangements made so far in the implementation of decisions reached during the Lake Chad Basin Commission.
“Nigerian armed forces are very ready, we have briefed him but one most interesting thing about it is that we are going out much happier because he has shown us he is still a soldier.
“He has updated and enriched our strategic plan and we are happy,” he added.
He said that the meeting also discussed the relocation of the military command centre in Nigeria to Borno, adding that the centre would soon be fully operational.
“We have briefed him on how far we have reached on that; on that one again he has given us some additional assignments but very soon the centre will be on.
“I want to assure Nigerians that with what we have come out from this meeting we are very enthusiastic that the issue of Boko Haram will soon be over.
“I, as a permanent secretary, also feel like going to fight the war because he has given us hope and we have seen peace and security in the very near future,’’ he said.
The permanent secretary also said that the Joint Multi National Task Force on Boko Haram had re-strategised to combat terrorism in the sub-region.
“Now we have come as a united front.
“We have Chad, we have Cameroon; we have Benin; we have Niger.
“We have all re-strategised and come out with one strategy that we are going to use to address Boko Haram, unlike before,’’ he said.
The permanent secretary, however, said the issue of the abducted Chibok Girls was not part of the discussion.
*Report from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) was used for this story
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