We’ve Militarily Degraded, Dislocated Boko Haram – Former COAS Minimah

The immediate past Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen. Kenneth Minimah, has said despite the upsurge in suicide bombings, the desperation and uneasiness over the renewed attacks by the Boko Haram terrorists flows from the fact that they have been militarily “dislocated and degraded”.

Minimah, who was oblivious of his imminent sack yesterday, stated this in Abuja, while declaring open the Second Quarter COAS Conference, where he charged the Nigerian Army to seek ways to effectively confront the new tactics adopted by the terrorists wreaking havoc in the North-east.

According to him, the change of tactics by the insurgents is known and would be contained within a short time, saying that the military have “received intelligence report of what the terrorists are up to and we have to heighten up our security operations.

“Their fighting mechanism and efficiency no longer exists…they have been degraded and dislocated military speaking. So they have to resort to fighting soft targets and vulnerable individuals and places, attacking markets, places of worship and all gatherings, to ensure that they cause damage unto the civil populace, so as to heighten their propaganda. We are well aware of the change of tactics and we will contain that in a short time”.

Speaking further, the immediate past COAS disclosed that the Nigerian Army are already preparing for future events earmarked for the third Quarter COAS Conference.

He said the upcoming conference would afford the Nigerian Army the opportunity to “conduct a post mortem on the last elections with a view to imbibing the useful lessons that would come handy during the upcoming gubernatorial elections in Kogi and Bayelsa States in November and December respectively”.

Minimah said: “We would during the conference examine the state of operation Zaman Lafiya so as to add more impetus to our offensive into the last remaining enclaves and camps of the terrorists…use the opportunity to deliberate on measures to enable the Nigerian Army in synergy with sister services, security agencies and Para-military organisations to adequately respond to this new tactics of the terrorists.

“We have recovered all territories lost to the terrorists over the period of insurgency and we are within and inside the Sambisa forest holdings, we are trying to comb out the camps and enclaves in those camps to ensure that it is completely liberated,” he explained.
Earlier, the Army Chief of Policy and Plans (COPP), Maj-Gen. Ugo Buzugbe said the political, social and other happenings in the security sector requires a meeting of the nature in order to fine-tune plans for more effective operations.

Buzugbe noted that the focus of the conference was to further appraise the performance and challenges of the Nigerian Army in counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations.
According him,  “it is with a view to surmounting them…appraise our performance in terms of security at the 2015 general elections.”