Skip to main content

Army Fails own Deadline for Capture of Boko Haram Leader, Shekau

The Military yesterday extended the dateline for the capture of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau following the expiration of the 40 days ultimatum handed down to the troops to capture him dead or alive.

This is coming on the heels of report that the terrorists killed 11 people yesterday in a raid on a camp for civilians displaced by the Islamist group’s violent insurgency, military and vigilante sources told AFP.

According to Director of Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Sani Usman, “the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Nigerian Army, Lieutenant General TY Buratai commended the Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Ibrahim Attahiru, his Sector Commanders and all troops of Operation Lafiya Dole for pursuing the COAS directive of capturing the purported Boko Haram terrorists leader, Abubakar Shekau dead or alive within 40 days beginning from 21st July 2017 which elapsed yesterday 30th August 2017.”

Usman explained that although the leader had not been captured, the COAS noted with satisfaction the zeal and determination with which the directive was pursued.

“He congratulated the Commander for eliminating 5 key leaders of the terrorists group that were the closest associates and right hand men of the terrorists’ group leader.

“Within the same period, 82 of the Boko Haram terrorists were eliminated. Therefore, the Commander is very close to achieving the directive.”

In a related development, Boko Haram killed 11 people yesterday in a raid on a camp for civilians displaced by the Islamist group’s insurgency.

The sources said the Boko Haram fighters penetrated the camp in Banki on Nigeria’s border with Cameroon which houses 45,000 internally displaced people (IDP), using knives to kill their victims silently.

“At around 12:30 am this morning, some Boko Haram terrorists broke the barricade securing the IDP camp from the rear towards the Cameroon border and entered to seize food from IDPs,” a senior military officer in the town told AFP.

“They killed 11 IDPs and wounded two in the attack,” said the military officer who declined to be named.

Adamu Ahmad, a member of a civilian militia charged with protecting the Banki camp, confirmed the incident. The jihadists used knives to kill their victims instead of firearms to avoiding alerting soldiers at a military base adjacent to the camp, Ahmad said.

Soldiers expelled the attackers from the camp after the informal militia raised the alarm. The raiders also stole food aid rations given to those living in the camp, said the military officer.

Boko Haram is reported to be running desperately low on supplies after Nigerian security forces successfully cut off supply lines to the group’s bases.

“We have reason to believe they most likely acted on a tip-off from insiders,” said the officer who suggested that wives or children of Boko Haram fighters may have infiltrated the camp disguised as displaced people to conduct reconnaissance.

Banki, which is 130 kilometres southeast of Maiduguri, was initially an area of relative safety for those fleeing Boko Haram since the camp opened in March 2015.

But it has been repeatedly targeted by Boko Haram suicide attacks.

In April last year, at least seven people were killed at the camp in a suicide bomb attack carried out by two women.

In January, a girl thought to be 10-years-old died in a botched suicide attack after the explosive vest she was wearing detonated outside the camp.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Understanding Prof. Yemi Osinbajo - Abraham Ogbodo

Abraham Ogbodo I am trying to understand Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Often, he speaks out of character. That is, he talks as if he is Vice President before he is a professor of law, even when I know that the latter comes first. The man wasn’t like this when he was the attorney general of Lagos State and a teacher at the Law Faculty of the University of Lagos. Then, his statements were measured and as a seasoned lawyer, based on facts. But today, Osinbajo is sounding like Adams Oshiomhole, a union leader, who by the grace of God, became governor of Edo State for eight years. The revelations about big thefts in the economy had come more from Adams than even Ibrahim Magu, chairman of the EFCC. It was Adams who said former petroleum minister; Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke alone stole 13 billion British pounds from the national treasury. That is like saying she stole in raw cash almost twice as much as the entire fortune of Alhaj...
1 comment
Read more

FG borrows N3.38bn To Aid Potato Production in Plateau

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) wednesday approved N3.38 billion to boost the production of potatoes in Plateau State. The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who made the disclosure said the money would be borrowed from Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) with one per cent interest rate and 25 years moratorium. The minister who said the loan was not fresh, explained that it had previously been cancelled by the federal government with the intention to make a fresh request for the loan on behalf of Plateau State which she said was responsible for 95 per cent of potato production in the country. According to her, following ADB’s comprehensive programme on potato production in Plateau State, 100,000 families and 17 local government areas of Plateau State would benefit from the loan while 60,000 jobs would be created by the initiative. “My approval was on behalf of Plateau State to support the potato value chain. There is a loan that we had previously cancelled from ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Much ado about the foreign reserves - Nonso Obikili

I have received a lot of questions about the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) foreign reserves recently. The CBN has of course been touting the reserves growing from a low of about $24bn to the approximately $42bn it is now. The questions typically centre around why we are keeping so much in reserve when the economy is struggling, and we have poor infrastructure? Why don’t we use the reserves to reduce the poverty that is rampant? The question typically betrays a little bit of misunderstanding over what the foreign reserves are and how the entire thing works. Hopefully, after reading this we will have a better understanding of what it is and what it can and can’t be used for. First, what is the “Foreign Reserves?” It is the amount of foreign exchange that the central bank has at its disposal at any point in time. Some of this is in cash and some in other liquid assets, that is assets that can quickly be turned to cash. Some of this is in US dollars but sometimes it’s in other c...
Post a Comment
Read more