What Hinders Anti-Boko Haram Fight - Olonisakin

The Nigerian military seniors have told President Muhammadu Buhari what hampers the ongoing anti-Boko Haram war in the northeast of the country.

General Abayomi Olonisakin, the chief of defence staff, made comments to the State House journalists after meeting with Buhari at Aso Rock on Monday, October 19, The Punch reports.

The major objectives of the meeting were the review of the military operations and the discussion of the December deadline set for the army to crush insurgency in Nigeria.

Olonisakin explained that the weather conditions and some logistics challenges were posing serious hindrance to the counter-terrorism battle.

"We briefed the president on the security situation on the ground after a 60-day review and we had to brief him on the challenges we have and ensure that the mandate we have is properly delivered.

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"Of course, the challenges we are looking at are the issues of probably the weather as it were and some other logistics that we feel we should have so that the mandate can be quickly delivered."

However, responding to the question regarding the deadline, specifically whether  the military was considering the deadline shift, he replied categorically:

"We have not said that. The mandate is that we should clear Boko Haram from the occupied territories and ensure that we reclaim all the lost grounds. That is exactly what we are doing... It is a military operation and military operations have timelines and we are working on them assiduously."

Aliyu Ismaila from the Ministry of Defence, on his part, added:

"We are here to brief the President on the situation of what armed forces have been doing in the North-East and the South-South. That is exactly what we discussed with Mr President.

"The directive (from the president) is that we should continue what we have been doing and in the next few days, there will be another meeting.

"But by and large, the president is excited and confident that the leadership of the Nigerian armed forces that he puts in will do us proud."

See the photos from the Monday meeting of the military chiefs (Abayomi Olonisakin, Tukur Buratai, Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas and Sadique Abubakar) with the presidency:

Meanwhile, Senator Shehu Sani has recently identified 13 factors responsible, in his opinion, for the non-stopping Boko Haram attacks.

In conclusion of his piece the politician claimed that in order to end insurgency in the country, "we must break the wall of fear".

Source: Legit.ng