Former chief of defence staff (CDS), Gabriel Olonisakin has disclosed that he foresaw the invasion of forests in the country by bandits.

Olonisakin made the claim during a thanksgiving service held in his honour in Ode Ekiti, his hometown in Gbonyin LGA, Ekiti state.

He also disclosed that they were coming up with strategies on a monthly basis to address the challenges Nigeria was facing, ranging from terrorism, insurgency to theft.

The former CDS said;

“We went through the storm and came up with those babies of necessities. The system did not have those structures to do what we were facing, so we had to come up with ad hoc arrangements like the platforms we created with the intelligence agencies.

“So, I encouraged the officers under me to add value wherever they found themselves. And we always think outside the box, because if you don’t do that, you might not add value and more importantly, to give the system their best.

“That was why we were coming up with strategies on a monthly basis to address the challenges we were facing on security threats, ranging from terrorism, insurgency, to theft.

“We were also futuristic in our approach to address some of the strategies. This invasion of our forests by bandits we are experiencing at the moment, I saw it years back. I did a kind of study and I knew that our next target was going to be the forests.

“We also made sure we encouraged a lot of research and development in the army formation. So, we did our best for this nation in terms of resolving this pathetic insecurity issue — that I can boldly say.”