The Defence Headquarters who frowned at the statement credited to the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, that the military was overstretched, said only the Federal Government that can decide on engagement of foreign mercenaries to fight the Boko Haram insurgency.
Coordinator, Defence Military Operations, Maj. Gen. John Enenche, asserted this while fielding questions from reporters at a briefing in Abuja on Thursday.
This followed the call by the Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum who had demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari should engage foreign mercenaries, in the wake of the Saturday’s killings of many rice farmers in the state by Boko Haram terrorists.
In his reaction, Enenche said the military had no business debating the proposal of recruiting foreign mercenaries to tackle insurgents, saying that the troops are diligently prosecuting the war, and focused on victory.
According to him, “Request or proposal to engage mercenaries, that is at a very high level. The kind of armed forces and security agencies you have now is normally determined by the people. It (engagement of mercenaries) is not in our powers.
“It is a kind of force package; it is what the government wants. It is not for the military to begin to contend. No armed forces anywhere will tell the people, ‘this is how we want to operate.’ The legislators, the National Security Council, will decide on it”.
