B/Haram: Return to Maiduguri, Osinbajo tells service chiefs

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has directed the service chiefs to “move back” to the Command Centre in Maiduguri, Borno State Capital, to see the happenings there.

Daily Trust report that this was the outcome of a meeting the acting president held with the service chiefs at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday.

It was also decided that the military should get more surveillance devices and cameras that would be able to see distant attackers coming to the troops.

This came three days after Borno State Governor Kassim Shettima cautioned that though the Boko Haram terrorists had been sufficiently decimated, their capacity for attacks in the state should not be underrated.

Thursday’s meeting was attended by the Minister of Defence Mansur Dan-Ali as well as Chief of Defence Staff Gabriel Olonishakin, Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai, Chief of Air Staff Sadique Abubakar and Chief of Naval Staff Ibok Ekwe Ibas.

Addressing State House correspondents after the meeting, the defence minister said: “We just finished a meeting with the Acting President and the three service chiefs.

“We agreed that they should move back to the Command Centre again and see what are the things happening there.

“We have also agreed that we should get more surveillance devices, cameras that will be able to see distant attackers coming to the position of our troops.

“So also, the raining season is a difficult moment for us. We cannot dominate the environment like what we do during the dry season. But effort is geared towards regaining back our areas and we assure that all these ambushes that are happening regularly would be stopped.”