The Chief of
Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai has revealed the arrest of a Boko Haram
terrorist in Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
Buratai said
the terrorist, one of those fleeing from the hitherto Boko Haram stronghold of
Sambisa Forest, was arrested on Saturday.
Buratai made
the revelation in a remark before Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno cut the tape to
re-open two major roads in the state that were closed since 2013 at the height
of the atrocities of the insurgents.
The roads are
Maiduguri-Gubio-Damasak and Maiduguri-Monguno-Baga. They were opened in the
wake of the declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari that the terrorists had
been flushed out of Sambisa Forest.
Buratai
charged the troops not to relent until all the terrorists who had waged a war
against Nigeria since 2009 are arrested.
“You must
maintain the momentum of the operation. We must pursue the terrorists wherever
they are. We must not allow them to regroup,” the army chief said.
He said in
spite of the take over of the terrorists’ last strong hold in the Sambisa
forest as announced by President Muhammadu Buhari, “we have no time to waste”.
The chief of
army staff described the seven-year fight against the Boko Haram terrorists as
“quite sober and touchy”, saying that a number of officers and soldiers had
lost their lives in the war.
He prayed for
the repose of their souls and vowed that the army would recommit itself to the
fight until “remnants’’ of the terrorists were cleared.
Maj.-Gen.
Lucky Irabor, the Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, had earlier said
that the North East had been secured.
He also said
that insurgency had brought untold hardship on the people of Borno people and
the entire North East zone.
Irabor said
that the roads being reopened were closed three years ago to check the
incursion of the insurgents, adding that the reopening of such roads was an
indication that the terrorists had been defeated.
In a message,
the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin, also charged the military
to maintain the tempo of operation and ensure that terrorism was eliminated
from the North East.
Represented by
the Chief of Administration, Defenc Headquarters, Rear Admiral A. A. Dacosta,
Olonisakin restated the commitment of the military to defeating the terrorists.
NAN
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