According to Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, the president’s top priority when he took office was to put an end to the insurgency in the North East, and significant efforts had been made to do so.
He continued by saying that because of the strength of the Nigerian Army, terrorists no longer claimed any area.
He asserted, however, that instances of banditry and kidnapping were caused by the previous administration’s unwillingness to address the underlying issue as well as the military personnel’s subpar training.
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“The fight against banditry and kidnapping and the results have begun to reach an important turning point. A momentum has been generated, and we are hoping there would be no turning back. These days, all we hear is that the military is being frontal in its activity of attacking bandits’ enclaves; freeing hostages and all of that. We hope there would be no turning back,” he said.
He said the victory recorded by the army had justified the money spent on the military, saying, “Public expenditure is justified because if we didn’t fight Boko Haram to what we have today, they would have probably taken over many more cities. Before now, they were active, up to Abuja, bombing the United Nations’ headquarters and other places. Is it 100 per cent success? Clearly no, but substantially, they are degraded.”
