The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai has described the individual parading himself as Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau as “irrelevant in the scheme of things.”
It will be recalled that the dreaded terrorist group recently released an audio message in which they denied the army’s claim of having killed Shekau and discredited the military’s reported string of successes in the war on terror.
Buratai said: “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.”
According to him, the fact that Boko Haram insurgents now resort to using hit-and-run tactics instead of face-to-face combat as they did in the past is evidence enough that the military are on top of the situation.
“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.
General Buratai also reacted to Sunday’s bombing in Maiduguri, saying that it would be among the last by the group.
He said the blast revealed to them the places left for them to tackle, stating that the insurgents will no longer have a place to hide when those places have been secured by the military.