THE Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, on Thursday visited Sokoto State.
His visit comes a day after a fighter jet mistakenly bombed two communities in the Silame Local Government Area of the state, killing at least 10 innocent villagers and injuring several others.
Addressing journalists at the Giginya Cantonment Sokoto, the CDS reiterated that the Nigerian Government will not allow any foreign base to use its soil to attack neighboring countries.
Musa said the military tried to avoid mistakes from the operation in Silame LGA, adding that investigation would be launched into the matter.
“We have individuals that still harbour those people and once you do that, you make yourself a target,” he said. “Our appeal is please do not allow them hang around you, do not give them any support in whatever means.”
The CDS called on residents not to harbour criminals in their communities and admonished media practitioners not to be used as a tool for promoting bandits.
“The incident that happened yesterday is an operation we conducted. We followed up and ensure we avoided mistakes as much as possible. If there were other mistakes that came up, we will investigate.
“From what we have seen, there were criminals in that place. Anybody that toyed with them was part of them.
“We want to appeal to the media, always understand that those guys want to use the media to send their message across. That is what it is dangerous not to agree to what they are saying.”
General Musa stated that regardless of the airstrikes, the military would continue with its operations and would not relent in fighting criminal elements.
He explained that the military “would avoid civilian casualties as long as even they do avoid staying where the criminals are. It makes the job extremely difficult if we say wherever they are with the criminals, we avoid.
“If you are not with them, please leave their area and come out so that it gives us the ability to deal with them decisively.”
He also used the opportunity of his visit to have Christmas lunch with the troops of Operation Fansan Yamma, an operation aimed at ridding the state of bandits.
