Boko Haram: Buhari Meets Service Chiefs Behind Closed Doors

Boko Haram flag

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday met with service chiefs in order to overcome weather and logistic challenges hampering the ongoing campaign against Boko Haram so as to be able to fulfill its promise of crushing the sect before December.

The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Gabriel Abayomi Olonisakin and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Aliyu Ismaila, spoke with State House correspondents after the closed-door meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

“It is a normal consultation to intimate him of the issues on ground. We briefed him on the security situation on ground after a 60-day review and we had to brief him on the challenges we have and ensure that the mandate we have is properly delivered,” Olonisakin said.

“Of course, the challenges we are looking at include weather as it were and some other logistics that we feel we should have.”

According to him, the President was “…very excited, very happy. As for our request, he gave the mandate.”

When asked on any consideration for extension of the deadline, the CDS said: “We have not said that. The mandate is that we should clear Boko Haram from the occupied territories and ensure that we reclaim all the lost grounds. That is exactly what we are doing.”