Nigeria, Dec. 4 -- Nigeria's new Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa, on Wednesday said one of his key strategies for tackling insurgency is to withdraw soldiers from road checkpoints and redeploy them into the bush to directly confront terrorists.

Mr Musa, a retired general, said police officers and personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) would take over checkpoint duties from the military.

He said this while responding to questions during his screening at the Senate.

He was responding to a question on how he plans to enforce discipline among military officers.

"I can assure you that we're going to address them totally. We're going to have independent patrol teams that will go and make sure that we do, and...