Group under the auspices of Coalition of Civil Society Organisations for Change and Good Governance has thrown it’s weight on the efforts of the nation’s security agencies in curbing insurgency especially the Nigerian military, adding that more troops and recruitment into the various forces should be immediately scaled up by the Service Chiefs and the Air Force needs more air support on surveillance to avoid the issue of ambush of troops.
A statement at a world conference by its
Secretary-Genera Comrade Sabo Odeh
beckoned on the Nigeria Police Force and the internal security agencies to carry out more intelligence work against suicide bombings, deradicalization and profiling of suspected persons whose missions in the society especially in the north east are questionable, Odeh called on the Nigerian government to discard political considerations and make conscious efforts to arrest sponsors, financiers and collaborators of Boko Haram.
The Group called on the Federal Government to explore new international partners in its war against terrorism since its current partnerships are not delivering the much-needed weapons.
While condemning the attempt to distract and demonize the efforts of the military as regards to the recent mix-up in the information it passed across to Nigerians on the ambush of the oil exploration team, they maintained it attest to their integrity and sincerity to sustain their victory against Boko Haram’s insurgency.
“Our charge to the military is for them not to see the unfortunate event as a setback but a challenge to ensure that every single Nigerian ever held hostage by Boko Haram is rescued without any delay. They should use such rescue operation to ensure that the terrorists get appointments with their maker.
We urge locals to stop collaborating with terrorists. Whatever the incentives are for supporting Boko Haram fighters, the very act exposes the life of ordinary citizens to unnecessary risks”, he said.
The group said the mix-up in communication and the sincerity of the military to come out clear after discovering the error is highly commendable.
“We note the initial mix up in the information released by the Nigerian Military, which has suggested that abducted researchers were rescued. The prompt clarification and apology for the mix-up are equally noted. For us, this sense of contrition is a quality that was absent in that organization prior to its current leadership”.
They called on the military to upgrade it’s communications equipment to contemporary standards to avoid pro-terrorists’ persons capitalizing on the mix-up in communication. The group frowned at the call for change in military chiefs and sanctions stressing that it will only aid insurgency.
“This kind of attitude ignore the key issues arising from the ambush, which is the fact that saboteurs working for Boko Haram compromised an operation, which calls for concerns.
“We are not unaware that some of these emergency analysts premise their positions on reports like the one issued by a US group on counter-insurgency, which erroneously concluded that Nigeria’s military lacks the capability to hold recovered territory. This positio It is most unfortunate that what is a simple operational slip is now being interpreted as something else”.
They asked that troops be deployed to all troubled areas of the country regardless of the geographical location.
