Army spokesman debunks resurgence of Boko Haram in Northeast

The Director of Defence Information (DDI) of the Nigerian Army, Maj-Gen. John Enenche, has debunked the news of the resurgence of Boko Haram in the northeast

Speaking yesterday in Abuja at the monthly press briefing on defence and security, Enenche said what the Army was doing was to restrategise its operations by using “drawing enemy fire.”

According to him, the Nigerian Army has re-strategised, but most people would not know what is happening as a result of the re-strategisation of the Nigerian Army, adding that the general public should not panic, particularly those in the northeast, to give useful information of any groups terrorising them.

Enenche said: “I stand here to let you know categorically that it is not true. I have to bend a little from our ethics to lay something and to let the cat out of the bag, which I am doing just for national interest to allay the fears of the general public, so that their confidence in what has been achieved will not dwindle.

“There is what we called “drawing enemy fire.” That is what is happening. “There are movements and actions that we take. There are things that you do in the course of any encounter with an adversary or with the enemy to draw his fire.

“It is not that we have become docile or that we have become dormant. Like I told you, it is not ethical to say this, but the apprehension is becoming a bit much from the pressures I get from you and from other calls I get that I am assuring them that the tactics is working.”

He added that most of the Boko Haram terrorists who carry out these dastardly acts are not professionals, stressing that they don’t have any tactics; hence the Nigerian Army is restrategising to degrade them.

“Let me also remind you that the Boko Haram terrorist groups, I called them groups because they are not one, vary in their characteristics and behaviour.

“They are not professionals, they don’t know what we know and this tactics of drawing enemy fire, they don’t know it. So, they now come out like sheep without shepherd and that will help us to eliminate them,” he said