Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Lt.-General Azuibuke Ihejirika, Sunday raised the alarm that the tactics of the Boko Haram sect is posing a serious challenge to security forces in the country.
The army boss said this in Lagos at an Interactive Session on Military-Media Relations in Nigeria with the theme Enhancing Military-Media Relations Toward Improved Security.
According to him, “In Nigeria, the activities of Boko Haram sect and other terrorist groups continue to threaten peace and security while their modus operandi poses serious threat to security forces in the country.
“The affiliation of the sect to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Al-Shabab has added an international dimension to its activities.”
Ihejiraka said it has been established that the Islamist sect’s declared interest was to islamize the entire Northern states of Nigeria islamic states with no regards to constitution of the country, noting that any country or community whose citizens have high level of security awareness have greater chances of defeating terrorists.
He said, “It is for this reason that terrorists carefully select the places in which they carry out their attacks to provide the best media coverage. On the whole, terrorists rely on the media as a tool to shrink the power asymmetry between them and the governments they fight, create an atmosphere of fear and suspicion, legitimise their acts, and reach greater audience.
“All these attributes have come to play in the activities of Boko Haram here in Nigeria and that explains why we need to continuously partner with the media to deal with the menace.”
Declaring the programme open, Minister of Defence, Dr. Olushola Bada, said apart from performing its primary role very well, the Nigerian Army had equally promoted the ideal of professionalism, integrity and discipline in all its engagement.
Comments