MUST READ: Atiku bombs President Buhari over claims that Boko Haram has been defeated

Nigeria’s former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has lashed out at
President Muhammadu Buhari over claims by his government that
Boko Haram has been defeated.
According to the ex-vice president who spoke at the 11th Founder’s
Day Ceremony of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), in
Yola, Adamawa state on Saturday, Boko Haram still retains the
capacity to carry out occasional deadly attacks.
This statement is in sharp contrast to what President Buhari and
Nigeria’s minister of Information, Lai Mohammed had said about
Boko Haram being decimated.

This counter claim by Atiku who is in the same All Progressives
Congress (APC) party with Buhari is another clear sign that the
unrest in the party is not nearing its end.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Atiku said: “The
insurgents still occupy a specific
geographical space. They (Boko Haram)
still retain the capacity for occasional
deadly attacks. Many citizens in the
zone still remain vulnerable and live in
fear.
“We cannot say that the problem is over
until every displaced person is able to
return home, to the office, to the market,
to the farm, and resume normal
activities.

“We cannot say it is over until we
rebuild the schools, the churches, the
hospitals, the markets, and the homes
that had been destroyed. And we
cannot say it’s over until the survivors
of this insurgency receive the help they
need, including psychological therapy
to deal with the trauma that they have
been through.
“I visited an IDP camp on Saturday and
had the privilege of teaching a math
class to some children. But the site of
hundreds of children running around
and unable to attend school was very
gut wrenching. It still breaks my heart.
“So we cannot say the insurgency is
over until all the displaced children
return to their schools.

“And, as I indicated last year, it would
not be enough for people to simply
return to their pre-insurgency lives. We
must do better than that otherwise we
would only have papered over the
wound without really treating it.
“People must return to something
better, to hope, to improved schools, to
improved economic opportunities, to
freedom of worship and improved inter-
religious harmony.”

The outgone General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division,
Maj.Gen. Isidore Edet, disclosed this on Wednesday, November 16,
in Lagos in during his hand over to his successor, Maj Gen
Ebenezer Oyefolu.
Edet said the division apprehended the terrorists in different parts
of the two states, NAN reports.
He said: “As Boko Haram is being defeated
in the northeast, the terrorists run to
other parts of the country. We ensure
they are arrested irrespective of where
they run to. Lagos is not an exception,
we have continued to arrest them and
hand them over to the necessary
agency. We have arrested over 37 of
them from August last year when I took
over to this month.”