The Nigerian Defense Headquarters has scrapped its joint military task force in the restive Niger Delta codenamed “Operation Pulo Shield” and replaced it with “Operation Delta Safe”.
A statement on Wednesday from the Director, Defense Information, Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar, said the decision is in line with initiative to restructure the JTF for better service delivery, efficiency and effectiveness.
The Defense spokesman said the new operation would be carried out under three sub-bases located in Ondo, Akwa Ibom and the entire Niger Delta.
The statement reads in full:
“The OPERATION PULO SHIELD in Niger Delta has been scrapped with immediate effect and replaced with OPERATION DELTA SAFE. This is in line with the Defence Headquarters initiative to restructure the Joint Task Force for better service delivery, efficiency and effectiveness in line with the vision and mission of the Chief of Defence Staff to contain the current security challenges in the Niger Delta especially protection of critical national assets and provision of security in the area.
“Under this arrangement, the Joint Operational Areas of the new outfit have been delineated into 3 sectors and 5 Operational Bases covering the entire Niger Delta, Ondo and Akwa Ibom States. The Headquarters of OPERATION DELTA SAFE would be in Yenagoa.
“This development, according to Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin, becomes expedient in order to inject new tactics and robust operational initiative to tackle the emerging security challenges in the Niger Delta region such as piracy, bunkering, vandalism and other criminalities prevalent in the area”.
