Boko Haram control drop from 20 LG to 2 - Shettima

• As military dislodge Boko Haram terrorists from Borno villages

By Michael Olugbode and Senator Iroegbu in Abuja

Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, has revealed that the Boko Haram insurgents have lost much ground in his state, with the terrorists’ area of control dropping from 20 local governments previously to two at present.

Kashim Shettima

Shettima’s disclosure came as the Nigerian military disclosed that it had dislodged Boko Haram fighters from their enclaves within some communities of Borno State in the North-east zone in its continued effort to defeat terrorists in the country before the December deadline.

The governor’s comments came ahead of a conference of traditional and religious leaders billed for Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, today to brainstorm on ways to protect mosques in the state against terrorist attack.

Shettima spoke while receiving the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir David Lawan, who led a six-man committee inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari to pay condolence visits to Borno and Adamawa states, which both came under suicide attacks at their mosques on Friday.

The governor said the recent attacks in Borno should not be misconstrued as an act of authority of the insurgents but rather as noise aimed at attracting attention, adding that the insurgents are presently on the run and cannot be said to have a stronghold.

“They are presently controlling two local governments in Borno State; Abadam and Mobbar and partially in Marte,” he disclosed.

The governor insisted that the bombings that were witnessed in recent times were only to show to the world that the terrorists were still around and have no relevance to their prowess.

He said: “At some point, Boko Haram overran 20 out of our 27 local government areas in Borno State. They overran four local government areas in Adamawa and two in Yobe.”

He said in order to prevent bombing at mosques, he had summoned all Imams of mosques in Maiduguri, Jere and surrounding areas as well as district heads, village heads and those manning streets called lawans and Bulamas, for a security meeting to be facilitated by the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai Elkanemi.

The governor said the meeting scheduled for Sunday would discuss firm measures that might require policy pronouncements aimed at addressing the newest attacks on mosques during prayers as carried out by insurgents.

The SGF said “the president on hearing what befell Adamawa and Borno states and the country yesterday (Friday) decided to set up this team to come and commiserate with you.

“The president is always compassionate and emotional when things like these happen to the people of Borno state, Nigeria is indeed very sad that these things continue to reoccur so often.”

He said, “defeating insurgency on the battle ground is different from defeating it from the urban areas.

“And knowing that their days are numbered it is clear that they have changed their styles and strategies and have now resorted to bomb blast even in religious areas, no one would have expected that one would have woken up to explode himself in a mosque, killing Muslims and maiming innocent worshippers in mosque.” Lawan said: “The president has said we should highlight that security is everybody’s business, because some of these people live among us and the only way we can eliminate this menace is by being vigilant and observant. We should monitor the activities of people that seem strange and people that look strange and people that are strangers in our midst.”

Meanwhile, the Nigerian military in its continued effort to defeat terrorists in the country before December deadline, said it had dislodged Boko Haram fighters from their enclaves within some communities of Borno state.

The Director of Army Public Relations (DAPR), Col. Sani Usman, in a statement yesterday said the troops of 5 Brigade Nigerian Army had been making huge progress towards complete elimination of the terrorists from their hideouts.

Usman said the formation was able to comprehensively destroy all Boko Haram camps and enclaves at the border towns of Kerenowa and Chikun Gudu as well as their contiguous villages in Borno state.

He revealed that the federal troops, during the ongoing operation, discovered and destroyed over 20 well fortified terrorist camps in the general area of Kerenowa. “The camps include some at the gateway to Kerenoa, Gumada and Dogon Gida,” he stated.

In addition, Usman said the troops also discovered that to evade aerial reconnaissance and bombardment, the terrorists had dug twin tunnels to conceal their facilities and routes in and out of the camp.

The Army spokesman listed among facilities discovered to include training areas equipped with instructional and training materials that include wooden guns, amongst others.

He said: “The troops have also cleared Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) along the road linking Marte, New Marte and Kerenowa. It is apparent that the Boko Haram terrorists lacked the will to fight as they are in disarray, abandoning their camps fleeing and leaving behind vehicles, solar panels used to power devices, food and other logistics, beddings, various IED devices, cables and cords.”

Usman also assured that “the advancing troops’ morale remains very high and they exude confidence and zeal to destroy all known Boko Haram camps along their axis of advance.” He called on members of the public to remain confident in the ability of the troops to eliminate all remaining vestiges of the terrorists before the year runs out in line with the presidential directives.

Boko Haram control drop from 20 LG to 2 - Shettima