Chief of Air Staff insists Boko Haram has been substantially degraded

• Army won’t be coerced to reply frivolous allegations, says Buratai
• Safe corridor delivers 151 surrendered terrorists to Borno

Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, has said that Boko Haram operation has been substantially degraded.

Abubakar disclosed this yesterday after delivering the second distinguished personality lecture organised by the Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies (IPSS), University of Ibadan, at the International Conference Centre of the university.

Speaking on the successes of the security forces tackling Boko Haram, the security chief said, “It has been substantially degraded because, remember, there were explosions everywhere in this country. If you recall in 2014 from where we’re coming and where we are now, Boko Haram is caged in a section of Northeast and we are fighting them on a daily basis. They are not able to come out as a force.

“Yes, from time to time, there may be a soft target because we can’t be everywhere.”

Meanwhile, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, has declared that the army would not be stampeded into reacting to frivolous allegations.

Buratai spoke at the army headquarters when he received members of the National Defence College (NDC) Course 27 who presented a paper on ‘Psychological Operation and Operational Efficiency in the Nigerian Army: the Social Media in Perspective’.

Addressing some of the observations raised by the participants, he said, “We will take appropriate steps to improve our psychological operations in the war against terrorism.”

Noting that the army would send out its own message but not as a direct reaction to insurgents’ propaganda, the COAS added that the army would adopt administrative approaches in handling mischievous reports rather than responding to every mischief.

In another vein, coordinator of Nigerian Army Safe Corridor (NASC), Maj-Gen.
Bamidele Shafa, has handed over 151 surrendered Boko Haram combatants to Borno State government.

The de-radicalisation exercise was to prepare the combatants for re-integration into the society, after 21 months training programme at a camp in Gombe State.