The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai has revealed the arrest
of a Boko Haram terrorist in Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
Buratai
said the terrorist, one of those fleeing from the hitherto Boko Haram
stronghold of Sambisa Forest, was arrested on Saturday.
Buratai
made the revelation in a remark before Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno cut
the tape to re-open two major roads in the state that were closed since
2013 at the height of the atrocities of the insurgents.
The
roads are Maiduguri-Gubio-Damasak and Maiduguri-Monguno-Baga. They were
opened in the wake of the declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari that
the terrorists had been flushed out of Sambisa Forest.
Buratai charged the troops not to relent until all the terrorists who had waged a war against Nigeria since 2009 are arrested.
“You
must maintain the momentum of the operation. We must pursue the
terrorists wherever they are. We must not allow them to regroup,” the
army chief said.
He said in spite of the take over of the
terrorists’ last strong hold in the Sambisa forest as announced by
President Muhammadu Buhari, “we have no time to waste”.
The chief
of army staff described the seven-year fight against the Boko Haram
terrorists as “quite sober and touchy”, saying that a number of officers
and soldiers had lost their lives in the war.
He prayed for the
repose of their souls and vowed that the army would recommit itself to
the fight until “remnants’’ of the terrorists were cleared.
Maj.-Gen. Lucky Irabor, the Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, had earlier said that the North East had been secured.
He also said that insurgency had brought untold hardship on the people of Borno people and the entire North East zone.
Irabor
said that the roads being reopened were closed three years ago to check
the incursion of the insurgents, adding that the reopening of such
roads was an indication that the terrorists had been defeated.
In
a message, the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin, also
charged the military to maintain the tempo of operation and ensure that
terrorism was eliminated from the North East.
Represented by the
Chief of Administration, Defenc Headquarters, Rear Admiral A. A.
Dacosta, Olonisakin restated the commitment of the military to defeating
the terrorists.
NANhttp://www.nairaland.com/3539403/boko-haram-commander-arrested-ikorodu
