EIGHT of the suspected terrorists who unleashed the bloodbath in Nigeria’s north-eastern state of Borno
have been arrested, officials said on Wednesday.
According to a statement by the director of defense information at the defense headquarters in Abuja, Brigadier-General Chris Olukolade, operations have been intensified to mop-up, cordon and search for terrorists.
“The DHQ has noted a number of attacks and killing of innocent citizens ostensibly carried out by terrorists in Yobe and Borno in the last couple of days,” the statement read.
“Although this isolated incidents were undertaken by relocating terrorists, the whole trend and development remains unfortunate and condemnable.
“Nevertheless, the public is hereby reassured that these incidences are by no means indicative of a relapse in the counter-insurgency operation aimed at curbing terrorists’ activities in the country.”
The military officer further said that the trend of sneaking in to carry out isolated attacks on soft targets as a way of seeking attention is a typical end-game strategy often employed by insurgents all over the world.
It said in this instance, the recent activities are signs of desperation of a decimated insurgent group attempting to hang on to public consciousness.
With the destruction of their operational bases and camps by the Special Forces, the group’s centre of gravity had been effectively dislocated.
This had made it impossible for them to have freedom of action to operate as they did previously, the statement read.
The defense headquarters is urging the public to continue to report any suspicious movement to security agents.