The federal government has reiterated its commitment to liberating all territories presently under the control of Boko Haram.
President Goodluck Jonathan, who gave the assurance on Friday through his representative, Mohammed Wakil, in Maiduguri, Borno State, during the commencement of the Presidential Initiative for the North East, said government would deploy all necessary resources at its disposal to liberate all territories occupied by Boko Haram insurgents.
Re-echoing the words of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Kenneth Minimah, the president declared that the Nigerian Armed Forces was mobilising human and material resources to reclaim lost territories and working on plans for the rehabilitation, reconstruction and redevelopment of the insurgency-ravaged North East region.
Jonathan added that his administration was determined to tackle and defeat the insurgency at all cost, noting that the federal government’s agenda for the North East extends beyond ongoing military operations to measures designed to provide short, medium and long term solutions to the overall challenges facing the region.
He listed non-military interventions to include the Presidential Initiatives for the North East headed by the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd); the Presidential Committee on the Distribution of Relief Materials headed by the NEMA Director General, Mallam Sani Sidi; Victims Support Fund chaired by former Defence Minister, Lt General T.Y. Danjuma; and Safe School Initiative coordinated by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Okonjo Iweala.
