Juliet Uduji
The Defence Headquarters has revealed that Boko Haram’s recent attack which left 81 people dead was launched in the Borno village because they revealed their location to the military.
Defence Headquarters Spokesperson, John Eneche revealed this as he appeared on a Channels TV programme. He also disclosed that the degradation of Boko Haram would have been completed if they had the cooperation of the general public, particularly from those communities and localities where those terrorists, criminals and bandits operate from in cells and hibernation.
Eneche said;
A lot of people didn’t know that what we saw a couple of days ago …in Borno and Katsina states where about 81 were killed and about 40 others…. The remote reasons for those actions was that ‘you gave our positions away to the military’ and they used other excuses to pounce on them. And that has been the major challenge.
“If we had the cooperation from the general public particularly from those communities and localities where those terrorists, criminals and bandits operate from in cells and hibernation, we would have long before now completed the degradation.
“The overarching strategy was to decimate, which we completed as far back as September 2016, and then to dominate the area, after which we occupy. All of them have their legs.
“When they started volunteering information, the rate of success at both fronts increased rapidly. And as the clearance operations were ongoing, both from the ground operations and air strikes, it was based on human intelligence, information.”
He further added that intelligence plays a key role in the successes recorded in curbing terrorism.
Eneche said;
“I particularly studied Pakistan. It took them 25 years, after about 12 years when people started volunteering information. Within two years, they were done with what we are seeing now.
“I can say that in all honesty, what we have on the ground …if not for the lack of information where they have…. Can you imagine you just pass a place and before you come back, they plant an IED and people are there watching?
“Will you blame it on them or that you don’t have equipment? The answer is purely no. Because if you have the information that these people planted this thing, you have a way of clearing this thing. The major challenge is giving us information.”
Credit: Linda Ikeji
