A retired military officer an anti-terrorist specialist, Colonel Tony Nyiam, has sounded a note of warning on the defeat of Sambisa forest.
While praising the military for achieving defeat, he warns that there is need for the authorities to watch it, as the war against terrorists may not have been completely won.
He was speaking on our breakfast programme Sunrise Daily.
We must make a distinction – What they have achieved is much more on the conventional warfare aspect in recapturing territories.
“We must not lose sight that there is the unconventional warfare which to my humble estimate, we have achieved over 50% degrading of the threat, but we are still at it.
“In other words, with all these terrorists now scattered all over, they would now resort to hiding and going back to other unconventional methods in our major cities such as Abuja, Lagos, Maiduguri,” among others.
The ex-miltary officer believes that fighting insurgency, is not only the role of the military.
He therefore stated that other agencies such as “the Department of State Security Services (DSS), the National Intelligence Agency, and of course all other agencies have roles to play”.
“We need to rely on un-uniformed security agencies, to complement what the military has done, Nyian suggested.
“We should just keep on improving on the good efforts we have given so far.”
Best Christmas
About a week ago, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, had announced that the era of Boko Haram militants had ended as Nigerian soldiers raided and conquered the group’s “last stronghold” in Sambisa forest.
Following this development, the Borno state Governor, Kashim Shettima, described the news as the best Christmas and New Year gift to the people of Borno State.
Commander of Operation Lafia Dole, Major General Lucky Irabor, has however said that the military is now more concerned about winning the peace in the north-east after winning the war in Sambisa forest.
He told Channels Television on Friday, that the military is now carrying out a mop up operation to establish full control of the area.
