Durotoye says Boko Haram still alive only because powerful people are making money from counter-insurgency

Presidential candidate of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Fela Durotoye, believes the only reason Boko Harams insurgency has not ended after nine years is because there are powerful people making money from the nations counter-insurgency.

The terrorist group's insurgency escalated in 2009 after its spiritual leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was extra-judicially murdered by police officers. Hundreds of the group's members were also killed during the crackdown by the military.

While speaking during an interview with Pulse on Tuesday, December 4, 2018, Durotoye said the military has not been deliberate in its prosecution of the war because certain people are profiting from it.

He said unnamed military sources have previously told him that soldiers on the frontlines are sometimes ordered to not kill terrorists in their sights for unexplained reasons.

He further accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of using funds meant to prosecute the war to fund elections instead.

He said, "I spoke with a couple of military guys in the last two weeks and some of them were saying, 'Sir, we don't understand what's going on because sometimes even when you see the people and you want to attack them, they'll tell you not to.'

"This is what they said. They said they'll get orders from above to say, 'Don't kill them, capture them'. But these guys here have guns they want to kill you and you say don't kill them. If you say capture them, then there's a problem.

"I think it's important that we have military that are deliberate about ending this whole terrorism.

"For me, if you see that $1 billion is spent on arms against Boko Haram every four years just before election, you realise that there's more than meets the eye there.

"We know that every war all across the world, there are people, especially in the military, that are making a lot of money from it. In Nigeria, it's no different."

He said the APC and PDP have both used funds meant for financing the military to fight Boko Haram to achieve political means and urged Nigerians to vote both leading parties out in the 2019 general elections to prevent a future recurrence.

He said, "There are people that are making money from this and every war situation because there are people who are there and supposedly buying arms but we saw with Dasuki-gate especially where the money for the arms went. The money for the arms went to Ekiti election.

"PDP did it, APC did it. The only way to make sure it does not happen in the next four years is to make sure that it's not PDP or APC you're voting. That's the only way. We cannot continue to do the same thing the same way and expect different results."

2019 presidential election

The 2019 presidential election, scheduled for February 16, 2019, is billed to be closely-fought between President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, of the PDP.

Alongside Durotoye in the chasing pack is Donald Duke of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Oby Ezekwesili of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Kingsley Moghalu of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), and Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC).

Others are Tope Fasua of the Abundance Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP), Eunice Atuejide of the National Interest Party (NIP), Adesina Fagbenro-Byron of the Kowa Party (KP), Chike Ukaegbu of the Advanced Allied Party (AAP), Hamza Al-Mustapha of the People's Party of Nigeria (PPN), Obadiah Mailafia of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and many more.