We’ll Flush Out Boko Haram In Six Weeks - Dansuki

National Security Adviser (NSA), Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd), has expressed the determination of the military to defeat Boko Haram within the six-week window given to guarantee conducive atmosphere for the conduct of the rescheduled general elections. Dasuki told Agence France Presse (AFP) in a report published yesterday that Boko Haram fighters who forced the delay would be crushed within the coming six weeks while the elections would no longer be delayed.

According to him, the military will achieve the feat of routing Boko Haram in six weeks in view of a new regional cooperation agreed on two weeks ago with neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger. The multi-lateral effort would pressure the insurgents from all sides and close their escape routes, he explained. “We’ve been fighting it alone for years… Now we are having support,” he added.

Nigeria and Chad have claimed major gains over Boko Haram since the start of this month, including the recapture of several towns under rebel control. Asked if the militants can be defeated by Election Day, Dasuki said “all known Boko Haram camps will be taken out. They won’t be there. They will be dismantled.”
“Those dates will not be shifted again,” he said when asked if the polls, which had been initially scheduled for February 14, could be pushed back further. Dasuki had been in the vanguard of the calls on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reschedule the elections, citing security and hitches in the distribution of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs). His letter to INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega that the military would not be available to provide security for electoral officials and materials for the elections was upon the basis for which the elections were rescheduled.

A gale of criticisms from the All Progressives Congress (APC), the United States and the United Kingdom, among others, trailed the poll shift which some believed the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) masterminded to stave off imminent defeat at the poll. Canada also expressed concern at the postponement of the general elections, urging the government and all political actors in Nigeria to respect the right of the people to choose those who will govern them in a free, fair and transparent process. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and for International Human Rights, Hon. Deepak Obhrai, in a statement given to New Telegraph yesterday in Abuja, said his country was concerned that Nigeria’s presidential, legislative and state elections had been postponed. Dasuki, however, rejected the notion that politics was behind his desire for a vote delay.

“Somebody looking at it the other way would say I’m helping the APC,” he said, adding that North- East states hardest hit by Boko Haram were all opposition strongholds. If the military pacifies the area over the next six weeks, more people can get to the polls, Dasuki said, describing this as his foremost objective.
“It’s not everybody who does things for selfish reasons. Some of us have a conscience,” he said. Asked about the reasons given for poll delay, Dasuki added that he had been consistent throughout, but that some of the issues had not previously been made public. With violence in the North-East raging in December, he said he had asked INEC about holding the vote in the region on a different day to the rest of the country so the security forces would not be overstretched.

INEC said “that will be very difficult for them,” and the idea was scrapped, he stated. Dasuki said Nigeria had been unable to defeat Boko Haram as it had been “fighting it alone for years… with all the limitations we have — equipment, support”. “Now we are having support. We are having additional troops. We are having additional equipment coming in.

We are better equipped and better placed now to take on that thing than we were before.” However, Boko Haram’s self-acclaimed leader, Abubakar Shekau, dismissed the regional alliance which Dasuki is depending on to bolster the anti-terror campaign. Shekau, in a 28-minute video posted on YouTube yesterday, said the insurgents would defeat the regional force.

According to him, Boko Haram is ready to extend its attacks to cover the entire globe. In the second of the latest videos, Shekau, whom the military had claimed to have killed in two occasions, showed images of the leader of the Islamic State (IS) group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi; a development, which raises concerns of Boko Haram’s likely affiliation with a violent group, that seeks to foist its ideology on Iraq and Syria. He also posted archival images of a historical battle between British colonial soldiers and fighters of the then Sokoto Caliphate.

Speaking in Arabic, Shekau said: “Your alliance will not achieve anything. Amass all your weapons and face us. We welcome you. “We never rose up to fight Africa. We rose up to fight the world.
“We are going to fight the world on the principle that whoever doesn’t obey Allah and the prophet should die or become a slave. “You send 7,000 troops? Why don’t you send 70 million? This is small. Only 7,000? By Allah, it is small.

We can seize them one-byone. We can seize them one-by-one.” Shekau also directly threatened Chad’s President Idriss Deby, whose forces have attacked Boko Haram in the northeast Nigerian towns of Gamboru and Malam Fatori in recent days. Efforts to get official reactions from the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) failed, as its spokesman, Major General Chris Olukolade, neither picked calls put across to him, nor did he reply a text message.

Shekau’s video came just as ssuspected Boko Haram fighters launched attacks on three communities in Cameroon, abducting more than 30 people, including those aboard a packed bus. The assaults by the terror group came as other militants invaded a town in the neighboring Niger for the third time in recent days, underscoring the growing regional havoc by Boko Haram.

The militants have stepped up their attacks on neighboring countries as Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin pledge to send troops to help Nigeria squash the extremist group that has killed more than 10,000 people over the past year. In northern Cameroon, the fighters seized a bus with 20 people aboard late Sunday in Koza and then drove it back toward the Nigerian border, some 18 kilometres away, resident Bouba Kaina told The Associated Press by telephone.
Early yesterday, another group of fighters attacked the Cameroonian town of Kolofata, looting food and livestock. The town was recently retaken by Chadian troops who have been helping the Cameroonian military fight Boko Haram.


















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Posted: at 10-02-2015 06:16 AM (9 years ago) | Addicted Hero

Tell that  to the birds. If truly you can flush BH in 6weeks that makes me to conclude that the ruling party is behind it otherwise what has they being waiting for since over 6yrs? All we want is change and it must happen IJN, amen

Posted: at 10-02-2015 07:39 AM (9 years ago) | Hero

Let us see how it goes

Posted: at 10-02-2015 09:31 AM (9 years ago) | Hero

Even as powerful as America went to fight ISIS, firstly they thought it would be days, instead weeks rolled by, then into months, till now they still there with more than 20 coalition both on air nd on ground, nd Nigeria, Chad nd Cameroun can wipeout BH in 6weeks, what a crafty political way to prepare 4 election rigging

Posted: at 10-02-2015 02:28 PM (9 years ago) | Newbie

We are watching closely

Posted: at 22-08-2015 03:40 PM (8 years ago) | Hero