The Defence Headquarters has established the Directorate of Defence Media Operations (DMO) to ensure seamless and harmonised information dissemination on the various military operations across the country.
The Coordinator of DMO, Maj.-Gen. John Enenche, disclosed this at the maiden media briefing of the directorate on Wednesday in Abuja.
Enenche said that the new outfit of the Armed Forces was the latest strategic initiative of the Chief of Defence Staff, in line with the military effort on media operations.
According to him, the channel of communicating the operational activities of the Nigerian military to the public has been streamlined to one source which is henceforth the Directorate of Defence Media Operations.
“This implies that the directorate is now the clearing house for all information relating to the operational activities of the armed forces, which will provide authentic information on all issues bothering on military operations.
“Additionally, the directorate is to disseminate information on multi agency operations of which the Nigerian military is the lead agency.
“In clear terms, the Directorate of Defence Media Operations is responsible for press briefings, releases and other press activities on all military led multi agency operations, for internal and international engagements.
“The purpose of this establishment is to ensure that the armed forces communicate its operational activities through one channel to the general public.
“It is envisioned to achieve “information delivery for positive effect”, at strategic, operational, tactical and other levels of our target audience,’’ he said.
Enenche, however, called for cooperation and support of the media for the directorate to enable it to deliver on its mandate.
He assured that the military would continue to review and restrategise to tackle the security challenges in the country in order to ensure adequate security of lives and property.
On his part, the Director of the Directorate, Brig.-Gen. Bernard Onyiukwu, said the directorate was created out of the need to interface with the media and the public on all Armed Forces of Nigeria military operations both internal and external.
Onyiukwu added that it would collate and disseminate timely and credible information to the media in order to create a balanced understanding of military operations and their objectives.
He said it was imperative for the armed forces to keep the citizens abreast with the activities of its various operations towards addressing the myriads of security challenges confronting the country.
According to him, the current security challenges in the country range from activities of insurgents in the North East; cattle rustling, banditry and kidnapping in the North West; farmers/herders conflict in the North Central.
“The South generally is characterized by militancy, oil theft, and cultism.
“Currently, we have a total of nine ongoing Armed Forces of Nigeria operations in different parts of the country, besides the Multinational Joint Task Force Operation, with its headquarters at N’Djamena, Republic of Chad.
“The operations are Operation Lafiya Dole, Operation Delta Safe, Operation Safe Haven, Operation Awatse, Operation Safe Corridor and Operation Whirl Stroke.
“Others are, Operation Whirl Punch, Operation Thunder Strike and Operation Hadarin Daji.
“The directorate is established to coordinate, collate and disseminate information from the theatres of all Armed Forces of Nigeria led operations,’’ he said.
The Acting Director of Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, said that the new directorate emanated from lack of harmonised information management from the various theatres of operation across the country.
Nwachukwu said that the Directorate of Defence Information would no longer speak on the military operations, but would continue to perform its statutory duties.
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