The Nigeria Defence Headquarters has boasted that the armed forces have done well in the fight against terrorism by decimating the potency of the Boko Haram terrorists in the northeastern part of the country.
This was stated by the Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. John Enenche in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria on Monday morning in Abuja.
Enenche said the initial delay in tackling terrorism in Nigeria made the menace gain momentum, taking over territories and setting up administrative structures before there were knocked off in 2016 by the military.
He added that the open display of powers and authority by the Boko Haram members can no longer be seen in the North East, adding that no single district or territory could be said to be under the control of the insurgents.
“The issue of bombings that even spread to other places like Abuja, Kano, Niger and Kogi States, including their slipper cells no longer exist.
“What about suicide bombing, which is one of the signs of terrorism? It was rife and even at our checkpoints they come and detonate bombs as well as public gatherings; all these have been nipped properly.
“If you put all these together, I can tell you that terrorism has been checkmated.
“However, the signs are still there with isolated action here and there; common with terrorism,” he said.
In his words, history had shown that terrorism was a very resilient type of enemy activity against the people, noting that the type of terrorism in Nigeria was not a smart one, but can be traced to the state of mind of a group of people.
He added that Boko Haram and ISWAP forms of terrorism were hybrid threats that had become protracted with immediate and remote causes.
According to the army spokesperson, the actual terrorism started about 10 years ago, it gained momentum and as it were, the actors in the state then were not clear about the motive, as a result of other issues that came up.
He said that the actions of the Federal Government and the military since 2015 had greatly checkmated the intensity of the activities of the terrorist in the country, particularly the North East.
He called on the populace to be bold in providing information on activities of the terrorists to aid the security agencies to track their locations.
