Nigeria’s chief of army staff, Lt. General Tukur
Buratai has dismissed as mere noise making the
claims in a new audio by Abubakar Shekau, the
elusive Boko Haram leader.
Buratai described the audio as `another desperate
move by the group to find relevance.’
He said the group no longer has the capacity to
hold any ground or plan co-ordinated attack on
strategic locations or key public facilities.
“I think the new Boko Haram leader, in the latest
audio is just trying to sound relevant; but as far as
I am concerned, he is irrelevant in the scheme of
things, he is irrelevant to me.
“ Have you seen any of them coming out apart from
the suicide bombings? You can see the number of
terrorists that are escaping from their camps; he is
just making noise to remain relevant,’’ he said.
The Army Chief who also reacted to Sunday’s bomb
blast in Maiduguri, urged residents of the area to
remain calm as measures were being taken to
forestall re-occurrence.
He said the bomb attack had provided clues of the
remaining areas the insurgents were operating
from in the state.
“Sunday’s bomb blast will be among those that will
be the last, you can be counting them, it has
opened up another window where we can now
focus where these attacks are coming from.
“It will not be possible for them to penetrate other
areas; for now we have knocked them off areas
along from Yobe and some parts of Borno.
“Immediately this incident happened yesterday, I
gave directive and we will comb that area
thoroughly to identify where they are operating
from,’’ he said.
Source: Vanguard
