Presidency: Military may wipe out Boko Haram insurgents ahead deadline
The Nigeria military could wipe the insurgents fro the North east ahead of the three-month deadline given by President Muhammadu Buhari,the Senior Special Assistant to the President, Mallam Garba Shehu, has said.
Shehu, who spoke in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Sunday, said that hope was still high that the abducted the girls from Government Secondary School, Chibok could still be found and rescued.
According to Shehu, the optimism is anchored on the fact that the terrorists are now in disarray, having lost their central command.
He said that they had been broken into splinters due to the efforts of the Nigerian troops under the new leadership.
The presidential aide dismissed the criticisms that the President Buhari-led administration had not done enough to stop the insurgency as promised during the election campaigns.
He said that on the contrary, the administration had been working hard to cripple the terror organisation.
Shehu said that due to intensive military bombardments, Sambisa Forest, their stronghold, was being fully reclaimed.
He said, “From my conversation with these commanders, what they are saying to themselves is that they are not going to wait for three months, but do their best to beat the target given by the president. “So there is so much going on and I can assure you that spirits are very high. The army chief was there with the soldiers for about nine days. That is leadership because you see him leading the soldiers from the front. “If the chief himself is there, who are you to drop your gun? A lot is happening and Boko Haram has been degraded, they have lost central command and are now in splinters.
“What you have now is bits and pieces carrying out distractive action because they don't want to go down alone. So they are looking for very soft targets such as churches, mosques and markets. The air force is clearing this place for the ground troops to move in. They are looking for bomb making structures and moving convoys of these insurgents. But they are being careful about certain locations with the hope not to harm the Chibok girls in those locations.”
On the Chibok girls, said the troops were being careful about certain locations so as not to harm the Chibok girls taken hostage by the terrorist group.
He explained that the bombings were being carried out in a careful manner to avoid certain locations of interest as far as the Chibok girls were concerned.
According to the president's spokesman, Sambisa Forest was under observation 24 hours day in the event somebody decides to move the girls and if there was any movement that is suspicious, there are drones that fly around the place at night and during the day.
“To be fair to President Buhari, did he ever say he will bring back the girls on the second day of his administration? What he has always said is that we don't even know where the girls are and that we need to go in there and get the intelligence and the situation of things and then act. “Without meaning to endanger what is left of those girls, you know that the Sambisa Forest is being degraded right now.
“In the last few days, you even saw the Chief of Army Staff leading the troops and I am aware that in the last few weeks, very interesting pictures have been shown to the president on the basis of which we will say to Nigerians, don't lose hope on the Chibok girls. I am not saying they have been found or that they have been seen. But it is not yet time for Nigerians to say we have lost them,” he added.
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