The appointment is expected to create a synergy between the ground and air forces in the battle against insurgency in Nigeria’s Northeast.
Murtala Abdullahi
Abraham Adole, an Air Force Officer, has been appointed as the new Deputy Commandant of Nigeria’s Operation against Jihadist groups in the North East.
HumAngle understands that the appointment is connected with the New Chief of Defence Staff’s efforts to make the Counter Insurgency (COIN) operations a joint effort.
This new posture, if successful, is expected to improve the integration of ground and air forces in furtherance of the military’s mandate in the North East and Lake Chad Basin.
Adole, an Air Vice Marshal, previously served as the Chief of Staff, Air Training Command and Principal Air Staff Officer to the former Chief of Air Staff.
He will be working with the Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole Major, General Farouq Yahaya, who took over in April 2020 from Major General Olusegun Adeniyi.
The military operation in the region, which began as a strategy to crush Boko Haram’s uprising quickly, has snowballed into urban battles, assassinations and a decade-long bloody insurgency.
The Joint Task Force (JTF), initially formed to tackle the uprising and subsequent violence, was code-named Operation Restore Order I, II and III conducted in succession between 2011 and 2013.
On May 14, 2013, the Nigerian government declared a state of emergency in the three worst-affected states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, and expanded the JTF operations into Operation Boyona.
Operation Boyona was later renamed Operation Zaman Lafiya in August 2013.
In 2015, the former Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai launched Operation Lafiya Dole to replace Zaman Lafiya.
