The Nigerian Army says it is making more progress in the fight against terrorism as the Boko Haram terrorist group is now disintegrated.
Director, Defence Information, Maj. General John Enenche said this on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily, while addressing the latest suicide bombing attack that occurred in Maiduguri on Monday.
“They don’t have a central command, they are not as coordinated as people think, they have dissenting views and before you say anything they can disintegrate.
“There are several factions of them and these are the people that have already acquired the little technology of making these explosives and these IEDs,” he said.
Although an unfortunate incident, Enenche explained that compared to cases in the past, the insurgents now only focus on soft targets causing a relatively low number of casualties.
“We are progressing in the real sense of it and we are going to overcome it. When you go into the records of how it all started some couple of years ago and looking at where we are now, compare it in the recent past, whereby they don’t have freedom of action even in terrorism again. They could just go into public buildings like churches and mosques and carry out these actions, you will see a very large number of casualties taking place but now that has been curtailed almost totally, limited to isolated attacks now and then to soft targets.
“Looking at what just happened, 16 casualties, (seven terrorists and nine innocent people), it is unfortunate that we had to lose those nine people but when you look again at the comparative analysis of the whole thing, we are making progress.”
A State Of Mind
Enenche opined that terrorism is a state of mind and that many terrorists have sold their souls to the act.
“Terrorism is a state of the mind – to de-indoctrinate them is more difficult than insurgence. These are people that may have sworn an oath that they must die in this. That is why you see some of them even detonating before the target they asked them to get to.”
Also, addressing the question of why the University of Maiduguri appears to be a regular target of the insurgents, Enenche explained that the insurgents have always been against western education hence the attacks.
On a general note, he also said the reason for what may appear to be a reprisal attack after the swap of some of the Chibok girls, could be because of the fact that the terrorist are now disintegrated.
He said while some groups may be in agreement with the swap deals that have taken place in the past, others may not, hence the fresh attacks afterwards.
He, however, assured Nigerians that the fight against terrorism is still improving daily and that the Military is doing its best to ensure that the insurgents are wiped out totally.
Also addressing the issue of some 38 soldiers who were dismissed, the military man said it was in connection with matters of national security.
According to him some of them were brilliant officers who were well in their courses but after administrative processes, they had to be dismissed on the basis of national security.
