Outgoing theatre Commander, Operations Lafia Dole, Major General Lucky Irabor has called on the people of the north east war theatre to be weary of Boko Haram elements who are already penetrating camps of internally displaced people IDP’S.
He said that the frustrated terrorists have devised this new method to reverse the gains of the war and recapture territories that have been taken from them.
Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj. Gen Lucky Irabor says the suspected Boko Haram infiltrated an IDPs camp in Damboa where they planned to carry out attacks on the town.
“Few days ago, we got intelligence that Boko Haram terrorists were planning to attack Damboa. They infiltrated the IDP camps in the town to commit their atrocities.
“This happened after an attack on Sabon Gari near Damboa where we lost six soldiers. We swung into action and rounded them up in the camp.
“Also we discovered a wallet belonging to one of the soldiers killed in the attack on Sabon Gari. The wallet contained the slain soldier’s ID card and ATM card. We are handling the situation.
The General said that about a hundred and twenty six suspects have been rounded up by his men and are still undergoing profiling to determine real suspects wanting to cause trouble.
All this happened during operation “deep punch” in which lots of recoveries were made in sabon geri, while they lost six soldiers and equipments to the insurgents but have been a b let to recover them.
“Beyond that, we realise that boko haram have been trying to attack Damboa, they have infiltrated Damboa idp camps plotting their havoc. About 126 of them were rounded up and they are undergoing profiling to get bh terrorists among them.
Lake Chad, the naval components now patrol the water, ensuring that they may enter deeper parts of Tungus
The threats are still on but we are up to speed.
On regrets, he said he does not have any because as a General, he has achieved a lot concerning all his benchmarks he set for himself before he took over the theatre as commander.
“But the intransigence of the Boko Haram really makes me sad. I would have loved these people to have dropped their weapons and stopped all these madness.” He posited while answering questions of newsmen Wednesday in his marmalari barracks office.
He dismissed the threats of bombing the city of Abuja by the insurgents as empty boasts adding that they are just making empty threats without anything to back that up.
Irabor however encouraged journalists to take on more stake holders and interrogate them about the next phases of the war adding that there is nothing like absolute peace but we must work towards it.
“If I have my way i want the next agenda to be set for road repairs and schools, I expect that issues concerning education and the entire population will also be treated as very vital in the promotion of peace.
“I expect you people to Interrogate and get measures that will take care of unemployment and give rise to new positions for the young people. We should get into the mindset of solving problems instead of creating more problems.
On the change of mind by the governor concerning the relocation of idps, from Maiduguri to their various council areas, the General commended the Governor for setting a date for himself adding that If you don’t set goals you may not achieve much.
Almost 400 refugees crossed over from Cameroun to seek solace in idp cups in Nigeria this morning from Cameroon.
General irabor leaves for Chad on the 25th of May, to resume duty as the commander multinational joint task force MNJTF.
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