ALLEGATION OF FUNDING BOKO HARAM TERRORISTS, BASELESS – Ihejirika Former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt General Onyeabo Azubuike Ihejirika (Rtd.) last week has debunked the allegation of funding the Boko Haram terrorists in the country and argued that if it were to be in developed countries, such allegation would have been dismissed with a wave of hands. Ihejirika and former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff were accused by the Australian negotiator, Dr Stephen Davis of funding the Boko Haram in a controversial interview granted Arise Television and SAHARA Reporters. But speaking at the Get-Together of Alumni members of the Nigerian Defence Academy-18 Regular Course at the National Defence College, Ihejirika called on all retired officers to continue supporting the leadership of Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh in his bid to win the war against terrorism. Hear him, “War is not is no longer fought on the traditional three dimensions of air land and sea, we have now clearly seen the fourth dimension of war fare, if this accusation was made in a country like US or UK, it will not be discussed for one hour. “Because they will wave it aside, but exploiting our traditional fault lines, a multi religious, multi ethnic , multi cultural and young democracy. So what they have tried is aimed at achieving what they could not achieve through the war”. He cautioned against politicization of security matters even as he called for support for President Goodluck Jonathan in the counter insurgency operation. “We cannot allow national security to be toyed with, the need for security awareness, in spite of the effort I out at that time and the effort being put by the current leadership of the armed forces, the need for security awareness still persist. I want to once again call on all Nigerians to join hands to support Mr President and members of the armed forces in their onerous task to rid this country of terrorism. I want to further advice that baseless frivolous, and unfounded allegations like this have the capacity of diverting our attention away from the main problem. “Nigeria must exist before you can hold a single political office, or be a business man, and there is no compromise in the effort to have a peaceful Nigeria. Therefore I have no apologies what so ever to those who thought that I was highhanded, every army makes a lot of effort to ensure that the troops operates within the rules of engagement, and our department of civil military affairs have done so much in this regard”. Speaking further, he said, “That we are where we are today, is a lesson for us, the lesson is that the terrorists are not sleeping, what they cannot be able to achieve through bombing, they are able to achieve it through media warfare. He then recalled all his contributions he made that flushed the terrorists out of their hide outs which reduced their activities to the barest minimum as a result they are not accusing him of funding them as a way of blackmailing him. “When in 2011 at the Chief of Army annual conference, I said that the nation was at war, it was not easily appreciated, my colleagues tried to say no! no! no! It’s not war, it’s just minor internal security problem. But I am happy that we have the person of Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, because he approved several steps which we used to help this matter. “We also establish for the first time the Civil- Military Affairs Department their job is to ensure that we don’t have the issues like we are having now. The idea of the civil military affairs department was to enlighten the civilian populace, on the dangers of terrorism and insurgency which was quite new to Nigeria. To let them know that terrorism cannot be condoned and to let emboldened citizens to come out and speak against Boko haram. “That lethargy that if you abuse Boko Haram they will deal with you, we saw it! So we used civil military affairs department to fight them through security awareness. We went to the extent of getting Nollywood actors to do playlets to condemn book haram in the media. “When it became necessary, we revived an abandoned unit in Mubi, and only last year, based on presidential approval we recruited 9000 troops to beef up our strength which was considered necessary to be able to man our borders. There was also the establishment of the 7 division which I have talked about, I have had cause to go well outside my boundaries to bring politicians and talk to them on the need to rise up. “I have held meetings with the governor of Borno and the senators, house of assembly, who is who in that place, in a closed door meeting I said let us join hand to fight this people to a standstill”. He welcomed suggestions earlier made by some retired officers who frowned at the politicizing the terror operations who suggested a forum where both the chieftains of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the leading opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). “A lot of people have spoken on an issue that wouldn’t have been subject of discourse, if we had better knowledge of the strategy and tactics of terrorist the world over. If our politics have been matured enough, but like Alhaji Tafida said, we will get there, and like the general from APC said we will get there. I am happy that if this forum has been able to get PDP and APC together it’s a major achievement, so I can say that gradually we will get to the root of our problem”. Speaking in the same vein, Air Vice Marshal, Chris Marizu (rtd) warned politicians against playing politics with the security of the country. He warned that Nigerians should know that the security is not for army along as it is the collective responsibility of everyone. “Some unscrupulous elements in this country want to malign the country, by using innuendos that could not collaborate. As at this week, the soldiers have killed over 1,200 boko haram and yet what is happening is not what is being reflected in the newspapers.” In his remark the President of 18 regular course Air Commodore Olufemi Oguntuyi commended General Ihejirika for his contributions to the military as COAS and enumerated some of the landmarks which included creation of extra divisions, Brigades, battalions into the Nigerian army and building of so many barracks, among others achievements.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 00:01:55 +0000