The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Farouk Yahaya, on Sunday, charged troops to eliminate suspected bandits and kidnappers and take their weapons.

Yahaya made the call during the inauguration of some facilities at the Nigerian Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Headquarters in Minna, Niger State.

He said: “I am here in Minna today as part of my operational visits across the country to ginger our soldiers for the good job they are doing.

“I urge them to continue and to be more resolute and decisive in dealing with the criminals.

“When we engage criminals such as bandits and kidnappers, we are not looking for prisoners of war but to kill them and take their weapons.

That is what we will continue to do until we stamp them out.”

The army chief said some areas of challenges highlighted by commanders would be addressed by the military authorities.

Yahaya added: “The essence of the visit is to interact with the soldiers and identify some areas of concern, address them and ginger the officers and soldiers to do more.”

He stressed that the army was doing its best with other security agencies to tackle insecurity across the country.

“We are addressing security challenges in collaboration with other security agencies and stakeholders.

“It is not easy to tackle security challenges but I must tell you that we are doing our best.

“There is the need for the public to give accurate and useful information to the security agencies to tackle insecurity.

If we take security as everybody’s business, we will have more synergy and improve on what we are doing,’’ he concluded.