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The Nigerian Army on Wednesday defended its launch of ‘Operation Crocodile Smile II’ insisting it will curtail the excesses of the Badoo cult group and other security challenges currently experienced in the South West region.
This was revealed on Wednesday by the Director, Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Sani Usman in an interview with newsmen in Lagos.
Usman noted that the military operations – Egwu Eke II and Crocodile Smile II – like the earlier operations, were not targeted at “any particular ethnic group or group of individuals.”
In his words: “Let me tell you. I made reference to Operation Crocodile Smile, because there is so much mischief and misinformation in respect of Exercise Egwu Eke II. What we are saying is that the exercise is not targeted at any particular ethnic group or a group of persons.
“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. Last year, we had all these exercises based on the challenges at that time.
“But this year, there are issues associated with criminalities such as Badoo and other cult-related activities. The problems associated with the North-West are different from the South-South or the South-East or a combination of both. The whole idea is that these exercises are routine and some people only blow things out of proportion. But we mean well and we just want to train our troops to be more professional,” Usman noted.