Ahead of the 2019 General Elections, former Minister of Education, and Co-convener of the internationally recognised, Bring Back Our Girls, BBOG, group, Oby Ezekwesili, has endorsed President Muhammadu Buhari’s ongoing counter-insurgency strategy, in the war against the dredged Boko Haram.
This is coming after Ezekwesili and other members of the BBOG group, joined in the tour of Sambisa Forest.
According to a statement by Ezekwesili, the BBOG group, saw highly motivated, highly professional, dedicated, and inspiring air troops of the Nigerian Air Force during their journey.
The group stated that the troops, who were mostly in their 20s, expressed gratitude to the BBOG, for advocating for a better welfare for them.
The group stated that the troops, who were mostly in their 20s, expressed gratitude to the BBOG, for advocating for a better welfare for them.
The statement reads: “We saw highly motivated, highly professional, very dedicated, and inspiring air troops of the Nigerian Air Force. Quite significantly, they were mostly in their 20s. They were delighted also to meet with us.
“Many walked up to us to thank us for our advocacy. Some recalled how much we advocated on the poor resourcing of the counterinsurgency war and their welfare. They were particularly inspired by our #NigeriansHonourOurHeroes,” the statement said.
The group explained that the Sambisa forest, was vast, and Camp Zero which had been destroyed, represented only a fraction of the large expanse known as Sambisa forest.
“Sambisa forest, is a vast expanse of land covering several hundred square kilometers, whereas ‘Camp Zero’ is only about 2 square kilometers. Whereas Camp Zero is destroyed and desolate, it represents only a fraction of the large expanse known as Sambisa forest. This explains why our troops are still in Sambisa forest, even after declaring victory when Camp Zero fell.
“Fear of resurgence means that our military on air and ground operations are still vigilant, in order to never allow the terrorists the opportunity to regroup.
“There is no contradiction between the recovery of Camp Zero by our troops, and the possibility that our girls may have been relocated to other locations within the vast Sambisa forest,” it said.
Also recounting on their experiences, the group stated: “We flew as low as 15,000 feet and saw the areas recovered. Our day sortie report when analysed, showed that 14 women were gathered around the ‘Tree of Life’, which has been a location of suspicious enemy movement. The Nigerian Air Force, NAF, said they would probe this further with their army colleagues.
“We did night sorties, precisely because we were told that it is usually at night that captives mostly women, girls, children, are moved around by the enemies. We were told that before now we would have seen many of such movements, when the insurgents were firmly in control of the theatre of war. We saw only an animal on a night crawl, but no human beings during this night sorties,” it said.
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