President Muhammadu Buhari has made it clear that Nigeria has finally triumphed over the Boko Haram insurgents. “They are not in a position to threaten Nigeria now, so we have won.”
President Buhari who spoke in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa service today said: “if people would be fair to us, they would know that the Nigerian Army has basically met the deadline (of eliminating Boko Haram at the end of December 2015), and are winning the war. You cannot find any significant number of Boko Haram members in Adamawa, and Yobe. Only, may be, in about three local governments of Borno; in the area around our borders with Chad Republic.”
He recalled that after settled down and got good grasp of what the country was going through, “we removed all the service chiefs and appointed new ones. We also undertook an investigation and found out how the monies meant for arms procurement were diverted and shared by officials in the last administration. They sent the boys to the war front without arms and ammunition, leading some of them to mutiny after which they were arrested and detained.”
The President said that his government has been able to raise money and fund the war.
“Go and ask the people of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa; how many of their local governments were under the control of insurgents (then)? And how many are currently still under the insurgents?
“May be we would not win the war completely by the end of the month (December), but the insurgents have now resorted to putting on explosive vests on young children, mostly girls aged 15 and below and then sending them to markets, mosques and churches to detonate. Boko Haram themselves know that the era of them taking over communities and local governments are over.” [myad]
