The President has warned Abukabar Shekau, Boko
Haram leader, to surrender now or face imminent
disaster according to the Daily Sun.
President Muhammadu Buhari also advised Nigerians to
be security-conscious following the sack of terrorists
from their Sambisa Forest stronghold.
Speaking through his Special Adviser on Media and
Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the president also said the
military has not been able to capture Shekau or win the
anti-insurgency war completely as desired, saying, "this
is asymmetric war. If it were to be conventional war,
once the enemies are overpowered, they will surrender
and you win the battle.
“But in asymmetric war, there will still be pocket of
strikes here and there until you are able to exterminate
the remnants of those behind them.” He added.
In view of this, he said the terrorists who fled from
Sambisa might have run to other parts of the country,
and Nigerians have to be extremely vigilant and be
more security-conscious to avoid being victims of
sudden attacks.
Over 20,000 Nigerians have been killed since the
insurgency started in 2009 while the President would
not want anybody to become victims of those blood-
thirsty terrorists again, Adesina said.
On the level the Federal Government has reached in the
war against terrorism, the presidential aide said,
“December 2015 was the target to technically defeat
Boko Haram, and by that time, we had defeated the
insurgents to a large extent.
“By that time, their ability to launch concentrated
attacks had been defeated. Before that time, Boko
Haram would take their battle to military formation,
police stations, government institutions and
establishments, and all that" he explained.
On what the government was doing to allay people’s
fear and guarantee security of lives and property,
Adesina noted that there were a lot of intelligence
gathering and other security issues the government
would not want to divulge to the public for security
reasons.
He, however, urged Nigerians to be security-conscious
and alert the government on any suspicious movements
or strange activities that could threaten security.
