Nigerian Army to deploy troops to the southwest to tackle the menace of Badoo cultists

NIGERIA'S military plans to step up its presence in the southwest of the country with the intensification of Operation Crocodile Smile II aimed at dealing with the menace of the Badoo cult operating in Ikorodu in Lagos State.

At the moment, the Nigerian Army is engaged in a series of operations across the country, including the much talked about Operation Python Dance II in the southeast geo-political zone. Operation Python Dance II in particular has come under a lot of scrutiny as it is being claimed that it was launched to witch-hunt Igbos campaigning for a separate state of Biafra.

In response to this claim, Brigadier Sani Usman, the Nigerian Army spokesperson, insisted that all the military operations were not targeted at any particular ethnic group or group of individuals. He added that the whole idea is that these exercises are routine and some people only blow things out of proportion.

Brigadier Usman said: “The army needs to train because in the event of being called upon by the civic authorities, we will know what to do. So, we are looking at large-scale security challenges and we train on those aspects as last year, we had all these exercises based on the challenges at that time.

“However, this year, there are issues associated with criminalities such as Badoo and other cult-related activities. The problems associated with the northwest are different from the south-south or the southeast or a combination of both.

However,  pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere has condemned the planned deployment of troops in the south-south and southwest geopolitical zones, saying there was no basis for it. According to Afenifere,  it was not the duty of the military to fight crimes, noting that the army authorities should rather deploy their personnel in the northeast where their services  were needed.

Afenifere spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, said: “There is no basis for troops deployment, as there is peace in the southwest and calm in the south-south as of now except there are fifth columnists within the administration who just want to provoke crisis where there is none. If they say they are looking for kidnappers, even in the south-west where they say they want to deploy troops, it was the police that arrested the notorious kidnapper, Evans.

"They arrested him without firing shots or carrying out any major operation, they simply used intelligence and arrested him.

“If there should be any crime that the military want to curb, it is the police that should do it, so there is no need for any Operation Python Dance and they should go and dance in the northeast where Boko Haram killed an Imam and others in Borno a few days ago.”

Also, the Pan Niger Delta Forum (Pandef) and the Ijaw Youth Council have called on the federal government to reconsider the deployment of soldiers in the Niger Delta region, saying that the move could undermine the relative peace in the region. Pandef's coordinating secretary, Dr Alfred Mulade, on said the deployment  of soldiers was misadvised and ill-conceived especially at this time when the geopolitical zone is gradually coming to terms with the urgent need for sustaining the relative peace in the region.