By Augustine Ehikioya
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja on Thursday said Nigerian Army was not surprised with the reaction of Boko Haram terrorists deploying female suicide bombers in Gwoza, Borno State.
According to him, the terrorists always react in such manner on a bad foot and under pressure after Nigerian Army’s offensive operations.
The COAS made the remark during his interaction with media executives in Jos, Plateau State, as part of activities marking the 2024 Nigerian Army Day Celebration (NADCEL).
Answering question on recent suicide bombers in Borno State, the Army Chief noted that Boko Haram also behaved in like manner between 2015 and 2019, stressing that the bombers were only able to detonate 3 out of the 15 female suicide bombers deployed in Gwoza.
He said “Leaning on our understanding of the tactics, techniques and procedure of Boko Haram in the past, we know that anytime they are on a bad foot and they are under immense pressure they always react in different ways.
“And one of the ways that they do react is to send out suicide bombers. This form of tactics were displayed by the terrorists in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 following our major offensive.
“All the major offensive in the North East have always engender some forms of reaction by the terrorists.
And so following our just concluded dry season offensive, we were expecting the terrorists to behave in some of way similar to what they have exhibited in the past.
“And we also got intelligence that they prepared over 15 female suicide bombers from all around their camps. What we experienced in Gwoza is just a one off thing
I want to assure Nigerians that the troops are on top of the game.” he stated
COAS went on “The intelligence we got was that 15 suicide bombers were sent into Gwoza. Three of them succeeded in detonating the suicide bombs. And if you look at the pattern of the detonation, the casualty reduced gradually until the last one that was taken out by troops that resulted in injury to the troops and resulted in casualty on the part of civilian joint task force.
“We are saddened by these occurrence and we have upped our ante to prevent reoccurrence. And one reassuring thing is that if they sent 15 suicide bombers and only three were able to detonate their bombs, even though we didn’t like it, I will say the troops have done well.”
Admitting that the settlements around Mandara mountain in Borno State have difficult terrains with very challenging weather not favourable to the Nigerian troops, he assured Nigerians that terrorists traces will soon be cleared from any part of Nigeria.
Disclosing that the Nigerian Army will work with intelligence community to place troops one step ahead of terrorists, he assured that the Nigerian Army will intensify its offensive operations into terrorists enclaves and prevent them from manufacture suicide vests and other Improvised explosives devices.
“And so what we are doing is to project offensive into their enclaves to prevent them from engaging in the production of these suicide vest and other forms of Improvised explosives devices.
“We are also working with the intelligence community to ensure that the troops are one step ahead of the insurgence such that before they even get into the community we would have averted this kind of dastardly act that happen in Gwoza” he said.
He appealed to Nigerians that as the troops are raising the bar, every stakeholder in Nigeria should also raise the bar so that “collectively we can prevent these bad guys from inflicting casualties on innocent civilians.
“We need to bring back the culture of using hand held scanners and other forms of detection to prevent the suicide bombers and other criminal elements from infiltrating our community at will.” COAS added.
On the issue of alleged misbehaviour by some soldiers, he said the Nigerian Army has investigated and open itself to scrutiny.
He advised Nigerians to take opportunity of its toll-free line to report any soldier misbehaving on the street.
Stressing that there is vote of confidence on the military in its involvement with civilians, he said that the Nigerian Army will continue to hold troops to the highest standard of engagement.
The Army Chief promised that any soldier who errs will be held accountable.
He disclosed that the Nigerian Army is working with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to train soldiers on international human rights laws and other laws.
Pointing out that the troops are working in challenging environments to ensure peace and security in the country, the COAS urged Nigerians to continue to support them with information to do their job well.
Answering question on the 2 non-combatant aircrafts recently received, the COAS said it is better to start with non-combatant aircrafts and then scale up to the combatant ones.
He also explained that organic Army Aviation is primarily tasked to do about 66% non-combatant tasks.
The COAS told the media executives that the Nigerian Army is also expecting delivery of 15 combatant aircrafts from the United States of America.
Commending the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) for their aviation and air lift supports, he said, the Nigerian Army Aviation wing is not in any way competing with NAF, but complementing the support from NAF.
On the report by Zamfara State Governor allegedly claiming that the Nigerian Army is not supporting him, the Army Chief said, the governor distanced himself from the report accusing the troops of taking sides.
According to him, the security agencies, including the Nigerian Army, have been working with the Zamfara State government to battle banditry and other security issues in the state.
Because of the volatile nature of the State, he said, soldiers have also been escorting the State governor, which is a privilege not extended to other governors.
On insurance claims for families of deceased troops and the living ones, he said that his tenure has been able to clear backlog of outstanding claims going far back as the year 2012.
Before the claims were cleared, the Army Chief said 6,400 families were tying down barracks accommodations and it would not have been right to eject them.
According to him, a mechanism of checks and balances has been put in place which ensured that the claims went to the right persons.
To this end, he said, there is no single dispute concerning the payments.
In his closing remarks at the end of the interactive session, he thanked the media for their support and sought for continuous partnership to root out terrorists and other criminals from Nigeria.
