Three days after Boko Haram killed 60 mourners, presidency insists group ‘defeated’

The presidency on Tuesday restated its often repeated claim that the Boko Haram insurgency has been defeated.

The presidency’s stance is contained in a statement by presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu.

“The position of the Nigerian government is that the Boko Haram terrorism has been degraded and defeated. The real Boko Haram we know is defeated,” Mr Shehu wrote in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES.

Mr Shehu’s comment comes three days after the Book Haram attacked a funeral procession in Borno State, killing at least 60 people.

The terror group has also killed scores of soldiers and civilians in the past few months in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States.

Apart from the killings, the terror group has also kidnapped many aid workers and other civilians. Six of such aid workers kidnapped earlier in July are still with the terror group.

Mr Shehu, however, said: “What we have now is a mixture of remnants of the Boko Haram, fugitive criminals and the Islam in Maghreb together with West African terrorists bonding together.”

The federal government had been criticised by many Nigerians in the past for claiming the group has been defeated.

Mr Shehu’s latest statement on the matter was made in a review of the 10 years of the insurgency.

The Book Haram, which seeks an Islamic caliphate in Northern Nigeria, has caused tens of thousands of deaths. Millions of others have been displaced, mainly in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

In his review, Mr Shehu highlighted the successes of the fight against the terror group by the Muhammadu Buhari adminstration.

“At present, terrorist activities have been confined to the remote, rural agrarian areas of Borno State and pockets of outrages in Adamawa and Yobe States,” he wrote.

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Read Mr Shehu’s full statement below.

The position of the Nigerian government is that the Boko Haram terrorism has been degraded and defeated. The real Boko Haram we know is defeated.

What we have now is a mixture of remnants of the Boko Haram, fugitive criminals and the Islam in Maghreb together with West African terrorists bonding together. This is a fall out of the collapse of the Libyan State, and from farther away, of the Islamic State in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. They are taking advantage of our porous Sahelian borders.

As a consequence of these international gangs, we have seen an increase of trans-border crimes and the proliferation of small arms in the Lake Chad Basin area. Outrages are common in Niger, Mali, Chad and Cameroon.

Nigeria is a large country covering nearly one million square kilometres. This is roughly equivalent to the size of France and Germany put together. In addition to our porous borders, in the neighbouring Sahel-Sahara region, a lot of ungoverned areas provide haven for terrorists’ occupation and training.

Without the tremendous efforts of our armed forces and the joint operations by the Nigeria-led Multinational Joint Task Force, MNJTF, formed by the countries of the Lake Chad Basin, this single problem of illegal arms flow would have been much worse.

At the moment, the Nigerian government under President Muhammadu Buhari has made the country safer than it met it. In 2015 when he took power, Boko Haram terrorism was active in nearly half the number of states in the country. They controlled a territory the size of Belgium, with a flag and systems of administration and taxation of their own. Emirs and Chiefs had fled their domains along with hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens. Such is no more; they have been taken from them.

At present, terrorist activities have been confined to the remote, rural agrarian areas of Borno State and pockets of outrages in Adamawa and Yobe States.

As the situation develops, our fantastic armed forces are changing their tactics. Just recently, they launched “Super Camps.” The essence of this is to act proactively and respond quickly to the changing nature of terrorism.

In addition to the additional support the government of Nigeria is receiving from friendly countries across Europe, United States and the Middle East, the Nigerian government is spending large sums of money in weapons procurement to keep our military in good fighting shape.

While the military arsenal is not something you pay for and get, requiring mostly long-time orders, weapons will come in accordance with the terms of contracts. This country is expecting the commencement of the delivery of Super Tucano fighter jets, very effective in this kind of warfare, beginning next year from the United States.

The administration has embarked on an ambitious electronic/digital border monitoring scheme to curtail the porosity of the borders and, working with the UN agencies, the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, donor agencies and friendly countries, has started providing solutions to backwardness in development and poverty in the sub-region because at the very heart of recruitment schemes of the terrorists lies the issue of poverty.

A few weeks ago, the administration inaugurated the Northeast Development Commission, to fast track development and poverty eradication in the affected areas.

The Buhari administration is strongly encouraged by successes recorded so far by our armed forces and the MNJTF, and is optimistic that in the same way as our military defeated the Boko Haram, so would the ISWA terrorism be defeated.