Troops on duty
Members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect Tuesday night invaded Chibok community in Borno State burning houses, shooting and forced residents to flee the community. No casualty was yet reported by the natives most of whom fled to neighbouring communities.
Chibok was where hundreds of students were abducted in 2014 by the insurgents. Some had been released but scores are still held in the den of the Boko Haram sect with some feared killed.
By press time Tuesday night, troops had engaged the insurgents in fierce shootout.
There has been a resurgence in attacks by the sects in Borno in recent weeks, compelling Gov. Babagana Zulum of Borno to urge the Nigerian Armed Forces to change strategies in the ongoing fight against Boko Haram.
Mr Isa Gusa, the Special Adviser to the governor on Public Relations and Strategy, quoted Zulum as saying this in a statement recently in Maiduguri.
Gusau said the governor made the call when President Muhammadu Buhari paid a sympathy visit to the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar El-Kanemi, over the insurgents’ mayhem in Auno community.
The attack claimed 30 lives, 18 vehicles and several houses.
He quoted the governor, who acknowledged the successes recorded by the military in the past three years, as calling for new tactics to check resurgence of insurgents’ activities in the state.
“Your Excellency; between March 2019 to date, we have started witnessing horrific and spontaneous attacks by the insurgents which has resulted into the loss of lives and properties of our people.
“We are calling upon the Nigerian military to change strategies and we can borrow a leaf from the success our military was able to hugely record in the years 2016 and 2017 with a view to ending the insurgency.
“We need to keep taking the war to enclaves of the insurgents in the fringes of the Lake Chad Basin, Sambisa Forest and some notable areas,” Zulum was quoted as saying in the statement.
The governor, however, commended the president for his commitment to ending the insurgency and his consistent empathy to the people of the state.
“Let me appreciate Mr President for associating with us at this our very trying moment. I am so surprised that we have forgotten the past,” he said.
Zulum who noted that although he could not ignore the current unfortunate situation, added that “the people of the state still remember the days before Buhari’s emergence, when 20 out of the 27 local government areas were in the hands of Boko Haram while all the five routes into Borno state were largely inaccessible with exception of Maiduguri-Kano road.
“In addition to sporadic bombings and killings in the state capital, Maiduguri.
“Close to about 20 local government areas resettled under Buhari. In fact, in the year 2016/2017 we celebrated the demise of the Boko Haram insurgency that has unfortunately returned.”
