Boko Haram now in Lagos, other state- Buratai reveals

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai has revealed that Boko Haram has found their way into Lagos and other parts of the country after the Nigerian army decimated the sects group in the North-East.

In an interview on Arise News Channel, Buratai stated that they have reduced the activities of the Islamic groups within the North-East to a bearest minimal and are now faced with the challenge of terrorism.

He noted that a few numbers of Boko Haram members have made their way into Lagos and other parts of the states in Nigeria, where they are conducting criminal activities such as kidnappings, armed robbery, and banditry.

Buratai, however, assured Nigerians that the army is fully in control of the situation and won’t relent in protecting the lives and properties of the people.

“We have defeated insurgency, but facing the challenge of terrorism.

“There is nowhere you will not find Boko Haram – even in Lagos here, there are Boko Hatam. In Kaduna, there is Boko Haram. There are more across the North-east. Many have been arrested here in Lagos. We have been tracking them. We arrest them and take them into custody.

“We must differentiate between insurgency and terrorism. I have tried to tell them at the National Assembly. Someone said three local governments are under Boko Haram. How? These guys are not controlling any territory. They attempted to establish their territory, caliphate in Gwoza but they have not been able to because they were flushed out. That is an insurgency. They are not holding any territory.

“Typically, that is the end of the insurgency. But what of terrorism? Terrorism will outlive you and me and probably everybody in this house because terrorism, since it started, just like armed robbery, like kidnapping, burglary, cultism, it would continue. These are all smaller parts of terrorism. It is when it goes higher than you have arsons as it happened in Borno yesterday, murder and so on deliberately, no cause.

“What is happening now is just criminality. Since last year, we have not given them any respite. They are now blocked. They no longer have access to foods; their movements are constrained; they no longer get the fuel they needed easily because we have strangulated them. They are now depressed; so, they go out with vengeance to attack commuters to abduct individuals and targeting certain religious persons just for their propaganda. This is also is one of the Boko Haram terrorist’s strategies – propaganda.”