Presidential spokesman, GarbaShehu has recounted in a statement that the "real BokoHaram" has been defeated. The Presidential aide recounted that what remains now is “a mixture of remnants of BokoHaram, fugitive criminals and the Islam in the Maghreb together with West African terrorists bonding together.”
He stated: “This is a fall out of the collapse of the Libyan State, and from farther away, of the Islamic State in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. They’re taking advantage of our porous Sahelian borders. “As a consequence of these international gangs, we’ve seen an increase of trans-border crimes and the proliferation of small arms in the Lake Chad Basin area. Outrages are common in Niger, Mali, Chad and Cameroon. “Nigeria is a large country covering nearly one million square kilometres. This is roughly equivalent to the size of France and Germany put together.
Shehu stressed that in addition to the porous borders, a lot of ungoverned areas in the region provide a heaven for terrorists’ occupation and training. “Without the tremendous efforts of our armed forces and the joint operations by the Nigeria-led Multinational Joint Task Force, MNJTF, formed by the countries of the Lake Chad Basin, this single problem of illegal arms flow would have been much worse.”
He commended the Federal Government for making the country safer than it met it. “In 2015 when President Buhari took power, BokoHaram terrorism was active in nearly half the number of states in the country. They controlled a territory the size of Belgium, with a flag and systems of administration and taxation of their own. Emirs and Chiefs had fled their domains along with hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens. Such is no more; they have been taken from them.
The Presidential aide further commends the support the government of Nigeria is receiving from friendly countries across Europe, the United States and the Middle East.
