A non-governmental group, Northern Youths Vanguard for Development (NYVD), has lavished praise on the Nigerian military for ensuring peaceful Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.
NYVD, which gave the commendation in a statement signed by its President, Yakubu Dauda and Secretary, Roseline Musa, said the peaceful celebrations testified the Armed Forces of Nigeria unwavering committed to ensure security in the country.
The group, in statement the released on Monday, expressed delight that for the second year running, the people of the region, especially the North East had a peaceful Christmas.
It called on the people of the region to redouble their efforts in cooperating with the military and providing them with relevant information to enhance their operations of rooting out terrorists and other criminals in the North-east region as well as other parts of the country
The statement also expressed appreciation over the massive and continued onslaughts of Nigerian troops against criminal elements, which have seen to many top bandits/terrorists neutralized.
“New year eve, bandits kingpin, Gwoska Dankarami, escaped death by the whiskers when air strikes of the Nigerian military targeted his hideout, along Kaura Namoda Road in Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
“Similarly, troops of 199 Special Forces Battalion hit out at terrorists on the eve of new year along Maiduguri to Damboa Road, killing some of them.
“Reports from the North East is cheering and gives us hope that very soon, normalcy will be completely restored, because of what our troops are doing there and other places.
“We in NYVD commend the Armed Forces of Nigeria under Gen. LEO Irabor for making all this possible. We are very hopeful it will get better for the North and Nigeria as a country,” the statement said.
The group urged parents to monitor the activities of their wards to ensure they don’t fall for the evil antics of enemies of the North who want to recruit more youths into their nefarious activities.