Boko Haram fighters, fleeing an attack on their base last
week might have used some of the Chibok schoolgirls
kidnapped on April 14, 2014, as human shields to prevent
being fired upon by fighter jets during the attack on
Sambisa Forest.
The Theatre Commander of the military campaign,
Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj. Gen. Lucky Irabor, on
Wednesday, showed journalists aerial footage he said
was filmed during attack on Sambisa Forest that showed
the terrorists moving with women and children.
“The haggard fighters were just using them as a shield,”
Irabor said at a news conference in Maiduguri.
Irabor added, “That is why we did not engage them from
the air. We had always believed and hoped that going into
the Sambisa Forest would afford us the opportunity to get
the remaining Chibok girls. What we can’t tell is whether
those women we can see were the Chibok girls.”
The terrorists had kidnapped more than 200 girls from the
Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on
April 14, 2014.
President Muhammadu Buhari said on Saturday that the
terrorists’ last enclave in the forest had been captured.
Irabor said the military was pursuing those who fled,
adding that 1,240 people, suspected to be militants, their
relatives or sympathisers, had been arrested in the past
one week.
Meanwhile, the Nasrul-Lahi-L-Fatih Society has hailed the
military for the recapture of the Sambisa Forest from
Boko Haram, urging the military to sustain the war
against the sect.
The group, in a statement by its President, Kameel
Bolarinwa, asked the Federal Government to ensure
improved welfare for the military personnel to boost their
morale.
The statement added, “The fall of Sambisa Forest in the
hands of our soldiers inevitably signposts a great
landmark in the fight against terrorism in this country.
“Kudos must also be given to the administration of
President Muhammadu Buhari for boosting the morale of
the Army in terms of provision of the military equipment
and adequate welfare, which assisted the Army to re-
engineer its operations and strategies.
“The Army must be adequately funded such that no
soldier, who is risking his life for peace and unity of our
nation, is made to suffer any deprivation, hardship or
denial of his entitlement.”
NASFAT, however, warned the military against
complacency, adding that concerted efforts must be
made to consolidate on the achievement.
“It is against this backdrop that we are gladdened by the
decision of the leadership of the Nigerian Army to turn
the forest to a training ground for the force,” the
statement said.
