• As Boko Haram vows to fight on in new video
From Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai and Chief of Air Staff, Sadique Abubakar, yesterday, arrived Maiduguri, Borno State capital,
following the order of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo that they should relocate to the state.
At an emergency meeting last Thursday, the acting president had directed the duo to relocate to Borno to restore normalcy to the area following the ambush and killing of oil experts and soldiers who were on an exploratory survey of Lake Chad last Tuesday.
No fewer than 59 people were reported killed in the attack, which is one of Boko Haram’s bloodiest this year.
The army had claimed that it rescued all the staff of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) who were kidnapped after the attack, but it later admitted that it gave false information.
Boko Haram has increased attacks lately, despite the claim by the military that the sect had been defeated.
In spite of the presidential directive and the relocation of the service chiefs, the Islamist insurgents have vowed to sustain the battle with the country.
“We are ready to do everything to protect our territory; we won’t allow an inch of our territory to be penetrated by the infidels,” one of the sect members said in a 29-minute video believed to have been shot in Sambisa forest.
In the video, the group showed its men going about their normal business. Some of them were seen in a local bakery, a few on their farmlands, while others engaged in trading activities.
Items such as foodstuff, books, cement, automobile spare parts were displayed in shops. Armed members of the sect rode on motorcycles, while some were seen operating computers.
This is coming at a time when the Nigerian military had repeatedly said it had degraded Boko Haram’s territories in Sambisa forest.
Tukur Buratai, the chief of army staff, had said the Nigerian Army Sports Championship will hold in Sambisa forest to consolidate the army’s grip on the area.
“We have been in the North-East fighting the Boko Haram terrorists, and you know the significance of the Sambisa forest to them. It used to be one of their centres; in fact, we suspect that their command and control centre was located there before its eventual
capture,” Buratai had said.
But an old man, who spoke in Kanuri dialect, disputed the claim of the military that the group had been defeated. He said the militants have been living well in the forest.
“You can see we are doing well and living fine. Look at our crops, they are growing well,” he said.
The video showed some fighters in a training session. It is, however, unclear which factions of the groups released the video as
Abubakar Shekau and Abu Musab al-Barnawi were not seen.
Recently, a faction led by al-Barnawi released a video of three staff of the University of Maiduguri abducted last Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the military has said provision of credible information on the activities and abode of Boko Haram would help in halting the increasing attacks by the insurgents in the volatile northeast States.
Director Defence Information, Maj Gen John Eneche, told newsmen in Maiduguri, after the meeting of the Chief of Defence Staff and other service chiefs yesterday at the Military Command and Control Centre, Maimalari Cantonment, that the habitation and living quarters of the insurgents both in urban and rural areas ought to be made known to troops to help accelerate the right against Boko Haram.
Eneche said the service chiefs led by the Chief of Defence Staff (COAS), Gen Abayomi Olonishakin, were at the MCCC of the Operation Lafiya Dole, Maiduguri to review military strategies and operational plans of the counter-insurgency war “in compliance with the presidential directive.”
The defence spokesman, however, did not state the duration the service chiefs will be staying in the Command.