Troops kill 112 insurgents in Borno.
By Abdullahi M. Gulloma, Abuja, and Sadiq Abubakar, Maiduguri
President Goodluck Jonathan has said that the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram last year are still alive.
Speaking on Africa Independent Television’s “Kakaaki” programme yesterday, he said the girls are still in the custody of their captors and would be rescued by the military as soon as possible.
“We promised that we must get the girls,” he said. “The good story is that they have not killed them because the terrorists, when they kill, they display. They use it to intimidate the whole society. They girls are alive. We will get the girls. Luckily, we are narrowing down the area of their control. So, we will get them.”
The president reiterated that the Nigerian military “is now in a better position to prosecute the war on terror,” adding that the remaining territories in the hands of the insurgents would soon be liberated.
Speaking on the origin of the terrorist sect and how it eventually became unwieldy, he said: “At the beginning, probably we did not really (correctly) estimated the capacity of Boko Haram. It is obvious. Boko Haram started as a non-violent group led by Yusuf, limited to around Maiduguri area, Yobe. They did not even get to Adamawa.
“Just like every group of youths or young people is inclined to criminality, over the period they expanded their network and linked up with other terrorist organisations like in the North Africa like Al-Qaeda and other similar brands in the world.
“So, they continued to build their capacity and it got to point to know that for you to tackle them in the kind of environment they operate, you need some specialised equipment to use and we don’t manufacture these equipment now.”
Jonathan explained that government had encountered some difficulties at the beginning of the war on terror, especially on getting the necessary weapons from other countries.
He said about 65 percent of the weapons needed for the war on terror are currently available, adding, “that is why the movement has changed.”
Jonathan assured that military personnel would mop up areas that have already been liberated to ensure that the insurgents do not re-launch attacks on them, and to enable the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) to return to their homes.
Away from insurgency and military operations, Jonathan said the current political space is tougher than it was during the 2011 general elections.
He said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is still stronger and would emerge victorious in the forthcoming elections.
He pointed out that it was members of the PDP that gave the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) the strength it currently enjoys, stressing that if the PDP elements were to leave the opposition party, it would crumble like a pack of cards.
“It was easier (for PDP in 2011), but PDP is still the dominant party,” he said. “There is no polling unit in Nigeria where you don’t have members of the PDP. Yes, for one reason or the other, within the party people get angry and may even vote against PDP, but in terms of membership of the PDP, there is no party that has that spread.
“So, PDP still has the most formidable structure, PDP has better chances of winning a national election. Even the opposition will tell you is they are realistic. Who has strengthened the opposition? Are they not the PDP elements? If you remove the PDP elements from the opposition, they will just crumble like a pack of cards.”
In a related development, Nigerian troops have repelled attempts by Boko Haram insurgents to invade Konduga town in Borno state.
Military sources said over 112 insurgents were killed in the fierce battle.
According to the sources, in the double attacks, troops gallantly succeeded in clearing the insurgents and recovering vehicles, guns and ammunition from them.
They said: “On Monday night, around midnight, a group of gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram insurgents made frantic efforts to enter Konduga town, but they were cleared by the troops who had prime information through intelligence of the terrorists’ plan to attack Konduga.
“The insurgents came in two separate groups at different periods but could not succeed. Their vehicles, guns and ammunition were seized from them.”
Blueprint reports that the Monday night attack ignited tension among the insurgents and made them to fall on the nearby villages of Yaleri, Mairari and Madarari, along Konduga-Bama road the next day. They set off bombs that killed at least 18 villagers in Yaleri and Mairari, thus forcing the villagers to flee the areas to Maiduguri city for safety.
Our correspondent also gathered that in what looked like a reprisal attack, the insurgents went to Madarari and attacked residents, harassing and molesting old men and women that could not flee.
An eyewitness, Modu Bukar, a farmer from Mairari village, told our correspondent in Maiduguri a few minutes after his arrival in the city: “The insurgents came to the village at midnight when people were asleep and started shooting and shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and the people started running into the bush, some to the nearby villages.
“Already we have been briefed to sleep with our eyes open and to always be attentive to any suspicious movement as other villages were being attacked and some fleeing to our village.”
He added that most of the villagers had fled.
A housewife, Hajja Yagana Kaka, from Yaleri village, told Blueprint: “We left the village because we were attacked and we thank God that we are alive.
“Everybody is running away from the village; we also had to leave. “My husband had left already. Only the children and I were in the house and we had to flee. We are here to find a place much safer than the village. We are tired of these frequent attacks.”
Blueprint gathered that the insurgents killed another four villagers in the bush near Madarari; they had gone there to fetch firewood for sale.
Another source told our correspondent that in an effort for them to get firewood for sale, the four met their waterloo in the hands of the insurgents who intercepted them in the bush and killed them, saying, “So you are the ones selling firewood to all those pagans in Maiduguri; you will not live to sell firewood to them again because they are our enemies.”
The source said when he saw them he climbed a tree and hid, adding that he watched them as they brutally killed the villagers.
