ABUJA – Like a replay of once-upon-a-time set deadline to vanquish the dreaded Islamist Boko Haram sect by the military, the Nigerian Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Adesola Amosu has declared that the satanists would rise again no more.
Fielding questions from Journalists yesterday, the CAS, noted that the ongoing military campaign in the Northeast has dealt a huge blow on the Boko Haram militants, insisting that it will make it difficult for them to rise again.
AVM Amosu, who spoke had just emerged from 2015 Budget Defence of the Nigerian Airforce at the Senate, also commended Nigerians for the timely intelligence reports on the sect.
According to him, efforts of the military were further boosted by the cooperation of Nigeria neigbours, thereby preventing the militants from escaping.
He added that the military has succeeded in cutting off the insurgents’ communication lines and also destroyed their training sessions.
“On the 15th of February, we were in Lagos to harmonize equipment with the ammunition system. It was very clear that we were commencing a major offensive and it was very quick for me to release information that we are going to storm the Northeast, we are going to storm the Sambisa Forest.
Since 15th, if you notice, there has not been any major offensive from the Boko Haram terrorists.
It is very clear that by our efforts, we have been able to disrupt their communication lines. Their command and control is substantially damaged. Again, their ability to plan is not there.
We have also been able to destroy their training stations. So, the issue of regeneration is out of it.
We are lucky again to have our neighbours who have agreed to work with us. That has given us huge comfort because, when they cannot run away to the neighbouring countries we are sure that we are going to contain them here, and it will be easy to take them down.
So far, we are happy and satisfied with what is going on and I am happy to announce to you that we are getting a lot of cooperation from the citizens. We are getting valuable intelligence from the citizens.
We just want to encourage them to keep it up because this is our country and we have no other country to go to.
These are people coming from outside the country to destabilize our country. I want to use this opportunity to acknowledge fully the support of Mr. President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
For me, this is a personal opinion, he has given more efforts to security than even the politics. So, we are happy with him”, he continued.
This is even as the Senate Committee on Defence and Army demanded details of the N1.275 billion security vote appropriated for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) for the 2014 fiscal year from the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Aliyu Ismaila,
The fund was appropriated for the MOD under the subhead of security vote including operations/ration and allowances for Brigade of Guards.
Chairman of the committee, Senator George Thompson Sekibo, wondered whether the allocation was not duplication since Service Wide Vote which was provided for in the year under review covered the issue of security vote for Brigade of Guards.
Some members of the committee also wanted to know why the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) handles purchase of arms and ammunitions instead of the MOD.
He recalled that it was once agreed that the end user should be responsible for the purchase of arm and ammunitions.
However, the Permanent Secretary, Ismaila to the panel that the ministry was saddled providing policy and direction for the Services under them, adding that the relationship between the. Was cordial.
The committee later suspended consideration of 2015 budget proposal because of what Sekibo called disparity in figures.