The Army has confirmed the death of over 30 members of the Boko Haram sect in recent attacks including air raids and ground attacks.
Besides, former Former Military Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar suggested new ways to fight insecurity while speaking at the National Defence College Course 22 inaugural lecture titled, ‘Comprehensive Approach to National Security Management in Nigeria” in Abuja.
The military revealed that the troops attached to 7 Division of the Nigerian Army killed the suspected members including their Amir yesterday in separate attacks launched on the sect’s camps at Ajigi, Kafa and Izza villages of Bama and Damboa council areas of the Borno State.
It was also revealed that unspecified members of the group were waylaid and killed at Izza village in Bama town when five Hilux vehicles mounted with anti-air craft guns and one 18-seater bus with foodstuff belonging to the terrorists were destroyed.
A report made by the military spokesman in Maiduguri, Captain Aliyu Danja, yesterday, stated that the pre-emptive attack was subsequent to intelligence reports gotten about the intended attacks by the outlaws to Bama and other towns in the state.
He noted that the operation involved air strikes and ground attacks.
“Our troops launched separate attacks on Boko Haram enclaves in different parts of BornoState, where we killed 30 of them in Ajigi and Kafa villages of Damboa Local Government Area.
“Those killed were suspected to be the group of terrorists that fled Damboa town, following an encounter with the security forces last Sunday.
“Also, a pre-emptive attack on Boko Haram concentration at Izza town in BornoState, Sunday afternoon, led to the killing of an unspecified number of the sect’s members” Danja revealed.
However, Abdussalam has said that the nature and pattern of outbreak of new and emerging threats can no longer be achieved through reliance on current approach to security, “nor can it be achieved through a sole reliance on the security agencies alone”.
He said that current security threats have shown that the attainment and preservation of security must be everybody’s business.
The General added that the public is expected to play vital role in assisting the conventional bodies, especially in the area of intelligence gathering on activities of criminal elements.
Abubakar, further said that the comprehensive approach he was advocating was concerned with restoring security, governance and development through inter-agency, inter-ministerial or even an inter-organisational framework approach.
“It is a structure that involves the use of political, diplomatic, security, economic and developmental interventions, governed by the rule of law in pursuit of a sustainable security in society,” he stated.
He justified his propositions on the basis that the threat to security in the country has evolved over time and the approach is urgently needed for the management of national security challenges.