He stated that the Army, in conjunction with other security agencies, has, in the last two weeks, recorded significant progress on the war against members of the sect.
Speaking after leading officers and men of the Army headquarters garrison in the range classification exercise, held at the 177 Guards Battalion in Keffi, Nasarawa State, he gave a vivid account of how his men got rid of key members of the sect in Sokoto, Maiduguri and Kaduna states.
He said: "I can tell you that, in the last one to two weeks, the operations have been very, very, successful. You are probably aware of the operations conducted in Kaduna, leading to the recovery of several assault weapons. This was followed by the operation conducted under the Joint Task Force in Maiduguri that also yielded so much recovery of arsenal of the enemy.
"The latest is the one in Sokoto during which we were able to take off one of the leaders of the Boko Haram sect. A member, 'Asalafi', was one of those on whose head we put a price. We took him off. This was followed by another leader, 'Danladi', and yet another called, 'Doctor'. Doctor is a bomb-making expert, while Danladi was said to be their Vice President or so. Asalafi was also known from to be their Minister of Defence. The recoveries made in Sokoto are as important as the ones made in Maiduguri and Kaduna. We discovered assault weapons, rocket launchers and pistols and other bomb making materials."
Saying that the weapon and range classification exercise is in line with the quest to instill discipline and professionalism in the Nigerian Army, he said the force strived with all sense of professionalism to avoid collateral damages whenever it carries out operation against terrorists in their hideouts.
He noted: "A soldier that is a marksman is an asset to the Nigerian Army; he is an asset to the nation in peace keeping and in internal security or in external operations. As you are aware, it is our goal to reduce, as much as possible, cases of accidental discharge or what you may call collateral damage. A soldier should be able to aim and accurately pick up a target or disable a target as the case may be. So, it is a very important aspect of our training.
"I will want to say that so far, the operations have been conducted in such a way that collateral damage has been reduced to the barest minimum. For instance, the operations conducted in Wammako local government of Sokoto State was done in an estate where there were hundreds of houses. Yet, only the houses occupied by these terrorists were touched.
"There was no civilian casualty in the exercise. It should interest you also that in the case of Kaduna and Sokoto, the wives of the terrorists and their children were recovered by the troops. They are safe and sound and they are being taken care of.
"What the terrorists do is that when they occupy any house, they bring in their wives and children to give them cover and to give a false impression that they are normal people going about their normal business. So, before we carry out operations, we do our best to ensure that both in timing and the weapons employed, those casualties are reduced to the barest minimum."
He explained that the range or weapon classification exercise is a mandatory exercise conducted by all formations and units for officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army, aimed at ascertaining the functionality of weapons; the marksmanship of troops, their discipline as well as troops ability to adhere to range order.
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