The Army Headquarters has directed the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 2 Division, Nigerian Army, Ibadan, Oyo State, to immediately relocate to Kwara to coordinate and boost military response to the rising wave of insecurity in the North Central state.

This is as Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq called for increased security deployments to the state to rout criminals involved in attacks in parts of the state.

In a statement following an unfortunate attack on the positions of the forest guards and surrounding areas of Oke Ode, the governor said the state requires more military deployments to roll back the activities of the criminals in parts of Kwara South and Kwara North. He regretted the loss of innocent civilians and the forest guards, who mounted a spirited resistance to the assailants in the early morning incident on grounds of patriotism and love for their communities.

“My heartfelt condolences go to the families. No word can adequately capture the depth of my sadness and nothing can compensate the bereaved families over these incidents, in spite of our efforts and the investments in enlisting and training the forest guards to bolster the conventional forces. Our people are understandably concerned about the situation, and I wholeheartedly share in this grief,” the Governor said in the statement on Sunday.

“While we appreciate the efforts and unquantifiable sacrifices of the security forces as well as the successes so far, we definitely need to do a lot more until we are completely out of the wood.

“Finally, I urge our brave residents to remain calm and avoid the temptation to turn on ourselves. I equally commend all the forest guards and the local hunters who, though lost five of their compatriots, equally neutralised several of the attackers. We will forever be grateful to all of them as our heroes.” (THE SUN)