No fewer than three hundred and ninety-nine suspects have been arrested for various offences during the Nigerian Army Exercise Crocodile Smile two in Lagos and Ogun States.

The exercise had it closing ceremony at one ninety-two Battalion, Ajilete, Ogun State, was aimed at flushing out pipeline vandals, kidnappers, cattle rusling illegal oil bunkering, miscreants, and herdsmen attacks.

According to the thirty-five Artillery Brigade Commander, Brigadier-General Bassey Adonkie, twenty assorted arms were recovered, while illicit drugs were also recovered and handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

Adonkie said this while giving an appraisal of the exercise, saying over one thousand officers participated in the exercise, which included the Army, Navy, Airforce, Police, Federal Road Safety Corps, and Civil Defence Corps.

Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai said criminal activities had reduced following the crackdown by the exercise which denied the hoodlums freedom of action.

Buratai who spoke through Chief of Training and Operations, Major-General David Ahmadu said the exercise leveraged on the gains of the Crocodile Smile one.

“Experience drawn from the exercise conducted in 2016 revealed that criminals and miscreants do fled from areas of ongoing operations to seek safe haven and cause security menace in areas hitherto regarded as peaceful.

“It was in line with this development, that I deemed it necessary to extend the areas of coverage for this year’s exercise crocodile smile, to cover the South-West and South-South regions of the country,” he said.

He said the closing ceremony should not be regarded as the end of the exercise and urged the men to sustain the tempo of the operation.

“The army places premium on training and thus Exercise Crocodile Smile is one of the training activities embarked on to sharpen the skills of personnel in the conduct of operation,” he said.

He said the exercise was a joint operation conducted with other sister agencies, saying it improved comradeship, inter-agency cooperation and synergy.

General Officer Commanding, 81 Division, Major-General Peter Dauke, in his opening remark, said the exercise was flagged off by the chief of army staff on Oct.7.

“The exercise was designed to develop and enhance professionalism among units, foster relationship and synergy among participating services, security agencies.

“It was also designed to improve the overall planning and conduct of internal security operations in combating prevalent security challenges.

“It is gladdening to note that the exercise was able to mitigate prevalent security challenges such as reduction in pipeline vanderlism, militancy, ritual killings, smuggling, kidnapping and drug related offences amongst others,” he said.

The GOC said troops were exposed to the rudiments of administration in the field, operational staff work and battle map marking during the operation.

“It is pertinent to note that all these activities were done in collaboration with other sister services with each playing its statutory roles in internal security duties,” he said.

A medical outreach was rendered to the Ajilete community by the army to commemorate the closing ceremony of the Crocodile Smile 2, where free eye test, health talks and other medical services were rendered to over one hundred residents in the area.

Present at the closing ceremony were senior military, para-military officers.