WITH the military’s takeover of the fight against terrorism in the
North, an all-out war has been launched against Boko Haram and other
groups of that mould.
The campaign has already yielded fruit,
as the Army Spokesman, Lt.-Col. Sagir Musa, on Monday claimed that
troops killed the terror group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, during a
clash.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Azubuike
Ihejirika, Monay faulted the previous operational strategies of the
military against insurgency, saying that there should be no mercy for
Boko Haram and other such groups.
He said that Nigerians would
soon smile as the military had decided to come out very hard on those
who believe that they could continue to undermine the nation’s internal
security.
Ihejirika spoke at the Second Commanding Officers’ Workshop held at the First Division, Nigerian Army Headquarters, Kaduna.
The workshop was organised by the army to review the operations of the
military against the backdrop of security challenges in some parts of
the North. It had the theme, “Building the Capacity of Unit Commanders
to Meet Contemporary Security Challenges.”
Among the top
military officers that were present on the occasion were the Commandants
of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Peace-Keeping Centre, Jaji,
Defence Industry Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) and Directorate of
Military Intelligence (DMI).
Addressing the officers, the army
chief stated that “unit commanders must be capable of taking the bull by
the horns”, pointing out that insurgents who decided to threaten the
country’s security should not be spared.
“You will recall the
old saying that there are no bad soldiers, but bad unit commanders.
There is no sort of complaint you will not get. Yes, you have had few
cases of soldiers relating with the adversaries, but as a unit commander
worth his onions, you can turn such a soldier into an asset, a
veritable asset. You can use such soldiers to track the enemy rather
than the enemy having the advantage. This is why as a unit commander,
you must be alert always, because there should be no excuse.”
Ihejirika said that the army was ever ready to provide training and
retraining for officers and soldiers to ensure that they are equipped
with modern strategies in fighting insurgency.
“Those in the
field will tell you that training cannot be excessive; we are now in a
period where we must train and re-train in order to be effective”, he
added.
Ihejirika said: “Now the challenge is that of
counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency. If you go through the books,
there are definitions of these two concepts but one thing wrong with
most definitions is that terrorism has to do with terror, attempts by
some people to instil fear, terror through committing heinous crimes and
other attacks or otherwise.
“When we are talking about
insurgency, you are talking about aggression most likely with the use of
fire-arms, so we are training to fight terror and also insurgency. So,
we still have to bring all the traditional methods of fighting
aggression to bear on fighting insurgency. It is only the environment
that will modify your style.
“I have not seen much of tactics or
even strategy in our actions so far. As we discuss, I believe I will
make my views known. But I wish to recall what I said sometimes ago
where I gave out several principles.
“The first factor I
identify militating against our effort was the issue of lack of mode.
So, as commanding officers, your first task is to get your officers and
soldiers to realise that you are in an operational situation and once
you get that right, things will continue to fall in place. Otherwise, if
you allow the situation to fall by in an operational area and the unit
commanders and the officers and others will prefer to stay in an air
conditioned houses, how safe will you feel?
“We do not have to
learn the hard way. If as a commanding officer you stroll out in the
evening and in the night and look at your environment and look at how
safe your troops are and put yourself in the position of the attacker, I
am sure you will come up with several ideas of how to deal with the
problems. So, you must all get into the mode.”
Besides, while
defending the military’s takeover, Musa said that it was to “secure and
police” the three states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa under the emergency
rule declared by the President in May this year.
Musa spoke Monday in an interview with The Guardian at the Maiduguri JTF headquarters.
His words: “To win the war against terrorism and Boko Haram activities,
there must be continued security presence to police the villages, just
as we are having in the townships of Maiduguri, Bama, Biu and others in
Borno State,” warning that the military’s takeover should be supported
because “residents of these towns and villages are soft targets to
terrorists.”
The JTF and Borno Vigilance Youths Group (BVYG)
Monday announced the capture of a top Boko Haram informant (name
withheld) and others.
This came as the Chief of Air Staff, Air
Marshal Alexander Sabundu Badeh, said that the Federal Government would
soon purchase new fighter jets for border patrols.
According to
Badeh, purchasing the new fighter jets is to properly secure the borders
of the country in line with the directives of President Goodluck
Jonathan that the Air Force must ensure that the country’s borders are
under tight security, especially in the North-East region, the home base
of Boko Haram.
How Shekau died, by military
THE
Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Restore Order, in Borno State Monday
explained how Boko Haram leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau was killed.
He
said that he died of gunshot wounds he sustained in an encounter with
the Special Military Operation Forces (SMOF) at the Sambisa Games
Forest Reserve in the state.
The area in which the training
camps and hideouts of the terrorist were located, is 55 kilometres
southeast of Maiduguri, the state capital.
The announcement of
Shekau’s killing was contained in a statement of JTF spokesman, Lt.-Col
Sagir Musa which was made available to reporters in Maiduguri on
Monday.
According to Musa, Shekau died at an undisclosed hospital in Amitchide, a Camerounian border town with Nigeria.
The statement reads in part: “Intelligence report available to the
Joint Task Force Operation Restore Order revealed that Abubakur Shekau,
the most dreaded and wanted Boko Haram terrorist leader may have died.
He died of gunshot wounds sustained in an encounter with the JTF
troops in one of their camps at Sambisa Forest on 30 June 2013.”
It added that: “Shekau was mortally wounded in the encounter and
sneaked into Amitchide – a border community in Cameroun for treatment
which he never recovered from. It is greatly believed that Shekau might
have died on 25 July to 3 August, 2013.”
On Shekau’s role in
terrorist activities in Borno State, the statement said: “The sect
leader was reported to have masterminded the kidnap of the seven French
citizens and that of the elder statesman Alhaji (Dr) Shettima Ali
Monguno in addition to many murders of Islamic clerics in Northern
Nigeria.
“He was also responsible for bombings of many places of
worship and public buildings including police and United Nations
Headquarters in Abuja.”
Musa added: “The recent video
released on 13 August, 20013 by the purported sect leader was
dramatized by an imposter to hoodwink the sect members to continue with
terrorism and to deceive the undiscerning minds. The JTF wishes
to appeal to the sect members to lay down their arms and embrace the
Federal Government’s offer for dialogue.”
On the capture and
killing of his deputy, Momodu Bama, the spokesman also said:
“Intelligence report has indicated that as of today or before he was
killed, he assumed the position of second-in-command to Shekau. We have
seen him on a video clip, slaughtering people, including policemen and
few security agents.
“Bama was combative and did not believe in
negotiating and dialoguing with the Federal Government. Not only was
that, he thought he was infallible. And he was also thinking that
nothing could happen to him...”
No comments:
Post a Comment