‘The only Boko Haram we haven’t defeated is the fake one’, presidency says

The Nigerian presidency insists that it has sufficiently degraded and defeated the terrorist Boko Haram sect, amid reports of terrorist onslaught in Nigeria’s restive northeast region every other day.

“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”, Mallam Garba Shehu, President Buhari’s spokesperson, declared in a statement emailed to journalists this week.

“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.

President Buhari's media aide, Garba Shehu insists that the administration has done well in combating terrorism (Punch) ece-auto-gen

“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,” Shehu added.

Confined to remote areas

Shehu also said the terrorists have now been confined to remote and agrarian communities in the Northeast rather than been left to control entire communities close to city centers, as was the case before President Buhari took over the reins from Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.

“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.

President Muhammadu Buhari crowns Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai in 2015 (right) ece-auto-gen

“In addition to the additional support the government of Nigeria is receiving from friendly countries across Europe, the 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", Shehu added.

Unrelenting Boko Haram attacks

The presidency’s stance flies in the face of recent attacks by Boko Haram and its splinter Islamic West Africa Province (ISWAP).

On Saturday, July 27, suspected Boko Haram extremists killed more than 60 people who were leaving a funeral in the Nganzai local government area of Borno State.

The Nganzai attack was the deadliest extremist attack against civilians in the region this year.

Bunu Bukar, secretary of the Borno Hunters Association, a self-defense group, told AFP that the extremists roared on motorbikes and opened fire on the villagers returning from offering funeral prayers for a relative.

He said his colleagues had recovered nearly two dozen bodies.

Nigerian army personnel on duty (Daily Post) dailypost

Boko Haram has killed more than 30,000 people and displaced millions more since it commenced its insurgency against the Nigerian state in 2009.

The extremists are also known for mass abductions of schoolgirls and putting young women and men into suicide vests for attacks on markets, mosques and other high-traffic areas.

Boko Haram, which abhors western education, seeks to impose a hardline Islamic state in Nigeria’s northern region,