Connect with us

News

Failure to learn from our Boko Haram experience

Published

on

THE North-West Terrorists which the Federal Government and the military call “Bandits” have come full circle in re-enacting strategies adopted by the Abubakar Shekau’s Boko Haram to hold government to ransom and frustrate our war against terror.

On Monday, April 11, 2022, the media carried photos and videos of the terrorists posing with some of the passengers they abducted from the train attack of March 28, 2022. Like Shekau’s Boko Haram, they demanded the release of 16 of their “commanders” who are with the security agencies awaiting justice, in exchange for the over 150 captives in their custody.

Advertisement

The train attack was obviously staged to embarrass and blackmail the Federal Government.Boko Haram insurgents became intractable when they resorted to the abduction of helpless citizens, particularly schoolgirls and women. On April 14, 2014, they abducted the Chibok schoolgirls, an epochal event that helped to ensure that former President Goodluck Jonathan lost his 2015 re-election bid.

Almost four years later on February 19, 2018, they also abducted 110 schoolgirls from Dapchi in Yobe State, but later released all except the only Christian, Leah Sharibu, who refused to convert to Islam.

Advertisement

The menace of the North-West terrorists became a concern of national and internal proportions when they mimicked Boko Haram and carried out a series of abductions of students of both genders from schools in Katsina, Niger, Kaduna, Zamfara and Kebbi states. Not done, they turned their attacks on military targets, invading the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna twice. They downed a military jet and attacked the Kaduna Airport twice. Their train attack that led to the loss of eight passengers and abduction of over 150 others was the second targeting of our railways.

Advertisement
Advertisement










Also Read...