By Michael Ochonu
The Nigerian Armed Forces are currently at their climax, doing what they know best and asserting dominance across all spheres of engagement with the enemies of the State. Operational successes across the country reveal that our armed forces are ahead of our adversaries.
They are, on a daily basis, bombarding the enemies. In the trinity, the three services must work together as one. Today, the armed forces — the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force — are working together like perfect triplets, delivering superlative successes across the length and breadth of our country.
This feat has been made possible because of unity, professionalism, and timely intelligence gathering and utilization, thereby fostering a unified, adaptable, and formidable command structure comparable with modern warfare.
Behind these superlative performances and outstanding successes is the unassuming leadership of General Olufemi Oluyede, who is intentional about showing the way.
Aside from the physical evidence of these successes, operational verifiable recent facts and figures across the three services between May and June 2026 attest to signature breakthroughs unprecedented in the history of Nigeria’s war against terrorism and criminal elements.
In May 2026, operational statistics revealed that 317 terrorists and criminal elements were neutralized, while 314 suspects were arrested by the Nigerian Army.
During the same period, 221 kidnapped civilians were rescued, several weapons were recovered, illegal arms factories were dismantled, and oil theft facilities were destroyed nationwide by the Nigerian Navy.
In June 2026, 129 terrorists and other criminal elements were neutralized and 486 suspects were arrested, with 542 kidnapped victims rescued through the combination of superior air offensives by the Nigerian Air Force.
It is also to the heroism of our gallant troops that they recovered 130 firearms along with 5,538 rounds of ammunition.
Additionally, seven illegal refining sites were dismantled and over 308,000 litres of stolen petroleum products were recovered. This translates to the fact that within the second quarter of 2026, over 662 terrorists were cumulatively eliminated in joint operations.
While the Army has sustained relentless ground offensives, destroying terrorists’ enclaves and hideouts, the Air Force has made decisive and precise incursions through effective air support, surveillance, and interdiction missions. These have helped sustain the disruption of enemy movements and prevented them from regrouping.
The Navy, for its part, has intensified operations within the maritime corridors, eliminating oil theft and piracy while securing national critical assets. This represents a perfect trinity, bringing about perfect operational coordination, outcomes, and successes.
It is worthy of note that these brilliant successes were recorded not just across the entire theatre of operations but decisively across all the services.
In the South-East, Operation UDOKA has systematically degraded IPOB/ESN networks. Robust strategic warfare has also led to the curbing of crude oil theft and maritime crimes in the South-South by the Navy, while the North-West has witnessed the coordinated dismantling of terrorists and their enclaves.
The superlative performance and successes of the armed forces under Gen. Oluyede have drawn applause and praise from civil society groups, who have acknowledged that these figures are not mere statistics but represent communities protected, lives saved, and criminal networks dismantled.
A seasoned administrator and gallant warrior, proficiently trained to conquer, General Oluyede brought along a system-level approach from the onset, characterized by his several years of experience in counterterrorism and strategic warfare in the Northeast.
His consistency in maintaining a strategic doctrine of jointness — which prioritizes synchronized operations among the trinity — has brought visible results and upheld the cherished rule that the best form of defence is attack.
His intelligence-driven fusion of air-ground integration and assault has led to effective collaboration and coordination of kinetic and non-kinetic approaches to operations. General Oluyede has also successfully integrated robust troops’ welfare schemes, which serve as a morale booster.
Civil-military cooperation, coupled with DDR initiatives, has led to the effective integration and coordination of vigilantes and forest guards into the nation’s security manpower architecture. All these have enabled precise target strikes and contributed to the restoration of economic stability, even within the maritime corridors.
Committed to a professional armed forces, his prioritization and focus on strengthening inter-service cooperation, promoting intelligence-led operations, improving operational planning, enhancing troop welfare and administration, encouraging civil-military relations, deepening collaboration with other security agencies, and establishing institutional structures for defence transformation and innovation are reforms designed to reinforce operational effectiveness while ensuring the Armed Forces remain adaptable to evolving security threats.
Through this, he has compelled the military to adhere to the rules of engagement, enhancing cordial relations between the armed forces and the civil populace. This has fostered a new wave of synergy and operational dominance, creating balanced and decisive elimination of criminal elements and a new wave of positive gains.
Truly, although we can do more, it is certain that it is only a matter of time before terrorism is no more, if Nigerians possess the patriotic zeal to complement the armed forces.
*Ochonu writes from Ilorin
Never miss a moment! Get the stories shaping Nigeria, delivered straight to your phone. Follow Peoplesdaily Newspaper on WhatsApp for breaking news, exclusive reports, and the headlines everyone will be talking about, before anyone else.
