In May this year, President Muhammadu Buhari gave the Nigerian armed forces up until December 31 to eliminate the Boko Haram threat and recover all the territory seized by the terrorists. Yesterday, Alhaji Mohammed said that the target had by and large been met as all of Boko Haram's camps had been overrun by the army.
Alhaji Mohammed added: “Today, I can report that the war against Boko Haram is largely won. I can confidently say this because just recently, I led a group of 33 journalists from both the local and international media to the hotbed of the insurgency, that is, Maiduguri, Kondugua, Kaoure and Bama.
“Today, I can report to you that the more than the 70-kilometer stretch from Maiduguri to Bama and all the way to Banki, which leads to Cameroon and the Central African Republic are in the hands of our gallant troops. The military presence could be felt every few metres along the road and at a point along that road, we were just a kilometre to Sambisa Forest."
He added, however, said that although there were still cases of suicide bombings, it was pertinent to note that such was the nature if insurgency globally. According to Alhaji Mohammed, even in countries like Colombia, where insurgency was supposed to have ended decades ago, attacks like this still happen.
“Our military have so degraded the capacity of Boko Haram that the terrorists can no longer hold on to any territory just as they can no longer carry out any spectacular attack. Unlike a war between two armies, an insurgency never ends with an arms victory," Alhaji Mohammed added.
Furthermore, he that the insurgents had adopted a new style of attacking soft targets like motor parks, schools, entertainment centres, religious centres, killing innocent people, mostly women and children. Alhaji Mohammed also said that an ad-hoc committee, comprising media representatives as well as intelligence agencies, would be inaugurated to regularly be updated about the war to inform members of the public better.
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