Major General Christopher Musa, Theatre Commander, North East Joint Task Force, Operation Hadin Kai, has decorated officers, soldiers and journalists with gallantry medals for their outstanding performance in the counter insurgency campaign.
The Commander also presented letters of honour and commendation to five officers of Operation Hadin Kai JTF.
The Officers distinguished themselves and demonstrated exceptional bravery, dedication and commitment in the fight against Boko Haram insurgents.
Musa said that the awardees were from the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air Force, Nigerian Navy, Nigeria Police, Department of State Services, Nigerian Customs Service, Nigeria Correctional Service, Nigerian Immigration Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and Civilian JTF.
Other recipients included journalists who have demonstrated critical roles in their reportage towards the fight against terrorism in the region.
They included Hamza Suleiman of the News Agency of Nigeria, Ndahi Inusa of Vanguard Newspapers, Haruna Dauda of Voice of America, Sadiq Abubakar of Blueprint Newspapers, Patrick Mark of African Independent Television, Timothy Olanrewaju of The Sun Newspapers and Ahmed Mari of Champion Newspapers.
Others were Hassan Ibrahim of Daily Trust Newspapers, Maimuna Garba of NTA Network Centre, Jesse Tafida of TVC and Abdulkareem Haruna of HumAngle Online Newspaper.
While presenting the medals and awards to the recipients, Musa charged them to continue to display their professionalism to end the war while the Nigerian Army will continue to cater adequately for their welfare.
He said: “We as people of Operation Hadin Kai who are building this nation together where peace and justice reigns, saddled our fatherland with love, strength and faith bounded by freedom and unity shall continue to conquer.
“On behalf of His Excellency, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Commander in Chief the Armed Forces, President Muhammadu Buhari, I wish to congratulate everyone for us recording another milestone, which is the sixty second anniversary of our independence and earning the medal of honour to our participation and gallantry.
“Operation Hadin Kai is a joint Operation which is designed for every one of us to play a role in ending all forms of insecurity in the North East. It consist of military, para-military, government and non-governmental organisations, the civil populace and the law abiding citizens.
“The Operation was established in order to restore law and order, extinguished all flames and end all forms of terrorism and criminality in North Eastern Nigeria by kinetic and most importantly non-kinetic operations.”
Musa added that the operations are being conducted in Sambisa Forest, Tumbuktu triangle and Mandara Mountains in protecting people’s lives and property.
He confirmed that over 60,300 communities and captives were liberated and rescued from the forest and Lake Chad region.
Musa called on the remnants of Boko Haram terrorists to come out from their hideouts and embrace the amnesty programme of the federal government, which is aimed at rehabilitation and reintegration of repentant terrorists back into society.