Military explains Why they deployed Air Force to dislodge Arepo vandals

The military has defended its decision to dislodge vandals and militants operation at Arepo with air force strikes, saying it was due to the inaccessibility of the swampy hideouts of the criminals.

It said, the joint operation involving the army, police, State Security Service (SSS) and Civil Defence engaged the air force to capture wider latitude of the vandals’ shanties and nab suspected operatives.

The military swung into action last Thursday following a directive of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) to smoke out criminals operating in the entire Arepo and its extensions parts in Lagos.

The Flag Officer Commanding Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Ferguson Bobai, while addressing the media, said the obnoxious development of kidnapping, robbery attacks and vandalism, which has overtime saturated the area, prompted military strikes.

He said the force was yet to put a figure to the number of casualties recorded in its first strike action as it was yet to wholly penetrate the creeks.

According to him, the military was fully braced up with well-wrought strategies to demolish their base.

He said: “We have commenced an ongoing operation around Arepo. We are all very familiar with the ugly situation that have been developing around Arepo, ranging from pipeline vandalism to kidnapping, armed robbery, and so on.

“Just last month, we got directive from the Chief of Defence Staff that we should carry out an operation to the general area of Arepo, with a view to dismantling vandals’ shanties scattered around Arepo, Ibafo, Ishawo.

“Initially, we were directed not to use air power, but when we carried out assessment of the operation area, a lot of them had moved from areas accessible by water and land to areas that are very swampy, into the mangroves of the area.

“We had to get back to the CDS that the best way we can take out these targets is by the use of air power, and the CDS granted us permission to do a general re-assessment and employ attack helicopters to take out those targets.