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| Minister of State for Defence, Mrs Olusola Obada |
Obada, who said this at the ministerial platform in Abuja, explained that the gesture was under the Ministry of Defence HIV and AIDS programme.
“In the area of health care, the Ministry of Defence HIV Programme Emergency Plan Implementation Committee (EPIC), in partnership with the United States Department of Defence HIV Programme, has offered HIV counselling and test services to many Nigerians and placed over 25,000 on Anti-Retro viral Therapy.
‘’In the last year, 15 new sites were established to provide these services and the services were rendered free.
“The emergency plan implementation committee has established the defence reference laboratory which will be accredited international grade by the college of pathology.
“May I just mention here that most of those given anti retro viral therapy are civilians not just people in the armed forces,” she said.
The minister said that the ministry had accorded attention to the plight of vulnerable and children orphaned by HIV and AIDS.
She said the ministry inaugurated a board of trustees to ensure that their needs were fully catered for, adding that 50 children had benefited from the gesture so far.
Also, the minister said that the Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Pulo Shield, charged with the protection of oil installations and curbing oil theft in the Niger Delta, arrested 1,653 suspects and destroyed 3,778 illegal refineries in the last one year.
The minister added that 120 barges, 878 boats, 161 tankers, 178 illegal dumps and 5,238 surface tanks were equally destroyed by the JTF.
Already, the minister disclosed, the area of operation had been expanded to cover nine states in the South-East and South-South regions of the country.
According to the minister, the Nigerian Army (NA), in a bid to improve the operations of troops deployed in the creeks of the Niger Delta, acquired eight gun boats with enhanced speed and firepower.
Obada announced that the Army had refurbished a large number of armoured personnel carriers, armoured fighting vehicles and guns to enhance its capacity for internal security operations.
To further boost internal security, she stated that the Army established a dog centre in Abuja for deployment at strategic areas in order to enhance search operations and for detection of explosives
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She said that there had been a series of joint military training with the police and other paramilitary agencies on combating terrorism in the country.
One of such trainings, she noted, is the Counter Terrorists and Counter Insurgency (CTCOIN), extended to the police and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) personnel conducted at the Nigerian Army Training Centre, Kontagora, Kaduna State.
On the Nigerian Navy, the minister said that about 50 illegal vessels and barges had been arrested on the Nigerian waters.
The Nigerian Navy, in collaboration with JTF in the Niger Delta, has destroyed 671 illegal refineries between January and March 2013, she added.
On the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), the minister said an international helicopter flying training school is being established in Enugu to conserve foreign exchange for many stakeholders in the industry.
Source: Tribune
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