Security analyst and retired military officer, Col Hassan Stan Labo (rtd) has described the menace of Boko Haram as worse than the activities of Boko Haram in the North East. Labo who stated this on Thursday when he appeared on Channels Television programme, 'Politics Today' called on the Federal Government to urgently wade into the matter or expect its degeneration in the coming months.
“I think attacks by Fulani herdsmen is a disturbing issue, enough is enough we must look for solutions to all this. Attacks by Fulani herdsmen wouldn’t be too far from Boko Haram insurgency very soon because frankly, these things keep building up gradually.
And in our normal or traditional manner of handling issues, like some of my friends will say – we keep romancing it until it done on us that look, we are into it as if we are into another Boko Haram. The attacks on various communities even if it is not as bad as Boko Haram, it has given us all the early warnings, all the signs that are could even be worse than Boko Haram.
If we place the tag of terrorist on IPOB – on this very programme I referred to IPOB as terrorists, I would also want to refer to these guys, the herdsmen as terrorists because their actions give them out as that. They might not be flying a flag and sort but they are armed."
He expressed dissatisfaction at the way the government has handled the issue so far and blamed the situation on manpower challenge.
“I am not particularly too impressed with the way we’ve handled the herdsmen issues, and I have this feeling that we have a serious manpower issue even with the security agencies. Yes, we have serious manpower issues – both the police and even the military the army is being overstretched,” he added.