Boko Haram resurgence: Matters arising

By GBEMIGA OLAKUNLE

It may sound like a tale by moonlight but the renewed vicious attacks by Boko Haram terrorists leave no one in doubt that the dreaded Islamic sect may have returned to Sambisa forest. After the successful operation by the Nigerian military that fl ushed them out of their strongholds, the Army High Command promised to secure the place and make it training facility.

Th e army swept the landmines from the area, especially along the highways, and opened the major roads for vehicular movements so as to pave way for economic activities and enable the residents to return to their normal lives. Th e authorities made us to believe that the sect has been highly degraded. Despite these claims from the military and the federal government, it is shocking that the sect still able to hit soft targets and lay successful ambush on military escorts and convoys.

Th e recent being its attack on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) exploration team to the Northeast in which 60 people, mainly professionals from the oil industry and from the academia together with soldiers and members of the civilian JTF, were massacred while oil explorations equipment were damaged. It should be noted that before this sordid episode in the ongoing war against terrorism, the Boko Haram sect has been using suicide bombers to hit soft targets and invaded Borno state capital, Maiduguri, before the sect’s militants were repelled on 2 occasions.

Th e sect’s actions were aimed at making a point that they may be down but not out. I was at a place when a northerner observed that Boko Haram is an ideology that resides in the hearts of its adherents. Th e military may kill the physical bodies of its adherents through military operations, but the ideology cannot be defeated by military might.

Th e man’s statement seems to make some sense. Defence Headquarters (DHQ) Abuja on Monday blamed the weather and informants as responsible for the recent Boko Haram killings, including the attacks on an oil exploration team, comprising oil workers and University of Maiduguri lecturers. Apart from the issue of weather which hinders troops’ movement and aff ects operations during the rainy season, the DHQ later threw a bombshell which confi rmed what we have been suspecting and even written about in our past articles on Boko Haram.

According to DHQ, the nature of this incident is strongly information bound. Th ere were collaborators and fi fth columnists. It queried how come the insurgents did not attack them on the fi rst day when they fi nished the exercise with the soldiers. It added that “they had an informant who gave terrorists information and ensured that they come to a place where they could easily be ambushed”. From our previous articles on Boko Haram, we admonished Military High Command to collaborate with related security agencies such as the Police, DSS, NIA, etc, for the purpose of intelligence gathering, processing and dissemination and to specifi cally tackle the issue of suspected fi fth columnists in their midst if the battle against terrorism in the land must be won.

If these two critical issues are not properly addressed, the terrorists would continue to spring surprise attacks to the embarrassment of both the political and the military leaders. “Ti iku ile ko ba pa ni, ti ode ko le pani (Yoruba, meaning if the enemy within does not kill someone, the one outside the house cannot kill the person). Since Boko Haram is an ideology that lives within the hearts of its believers/adherents, there may no doubt that some top military personnel (serving and retired) may be sympathetic to its cause.

Th ese are the elements the military should work on fi rst while putting a hold on sending our gallant soldiers on operations that may turn suicidal when they run into Boko Haram ambush. Arising from this unfortunate incident is the timing of the visit of the oil exploration team to the site. Everyone, including our friends from the international community knows that the dust raised by the Boko Haram war is yet to settle. If it had, the federal government would not be complaining of spending billions of naira to maintain the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in their various camps. Th ere is likelihood that some unrepentant Boko Haram insurgents have returned to Sambisa forest where they sometimes trooped out to lay ambush on soldiers.

One of the rescued Chibok girls reportedly rejoined her Boko Haram husband in Sambisa forest when she allegedly received a phone call that her rival has taken over her Boko Haram husband. Could this frantic search for oil in the Northeast at a time like this be as a result of renewal agitations for restructuring of the nation’s economic and political system? It is a welcome development that Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, has put an indefi nite hold on the oil exploration exercise by the NNPC until normalcy returns. Th is is necessary to prevent avoidable loss of lives. As a matter of fact, rather than for pure economic reasons, we suspect political reasons to be the underling factor for the ill timing of prospecting for oil in the midst of hostilities.

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