Speaking during a meeting with representatives of BON members in Abuja yesterday, the minister said the Federal Government is launching a National Security Awareness Campaign ‘’as part of efforts to provide the missing civilian component of the war against terrorism’.

‘’Specifically, the campaign is aimed at sensitizing Nigerians to the need to support the military, which has availed itself creditably in the battle, as well as to own the war. It is also aimed at alerting Nigerians to the need to be more security conscious, to be able to identify Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), the weapon of choice being deployed by the cowardly terrorists, and also to fish out suicide bombers before they strike,’’ he said.

The minister said while the Federal Government believes that the military has succeeded in massively degrading the capacity of the Boko Haram terrorists to carry out the kind of attacks they used to launch in the past, there is still the challenge of preventing the terrorists from attacking soft targets.

‘’We know that the terrorists, who have been routed from their strongholds, have now resorted to attacking soft targets, that is highly vulnerable places like markets, motor parks, mosques, entertainment centres and schools, killing innocent people.”

Mohammed lauded the Nigeri Television Authority, the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria and Voice of Nigeria for taking up the gauntlet by running awareness campaign messages on their stations, saying since December 2015, these stations have dedicated many slots, some in prime time, to airing these campaign messages in different languages.