Boko Haram: Buhari to meet service chiefs, former NSA, Dasuki

Perhaps, following the spate of four deadly attacks that left scores dead and several others injured or displaced in Borno and Yobe states by members of the Boko Haram sect, and poised to flush out the insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari will today take briefs from Service Chiefs on the issue.

This is to enable him know the extent of challenges inherited on the issue from the immediate past government of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.

Ahead of today’s meeting, President Buhari, yesterday met with the immediate past National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki. The meeting lasted almost four hours.

Today’s meeting, it was gathered, is a continuation of the meeting with Dasuki.

All the security chiefs and Director General of the Department of State Security (DSS) are expected to attend the parley.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu disclosed this to newsmen at the Defence House yesterday, at the end of the meeting between President Buhari and Dasuki. He also noted that the President would visit Chad and Niger tomorrow as part of efforts to develop a better approach to tackling the menace.

President Buhari had in his inaugural speech announced his resolve to tackle the insurgency headlong as he described the group as devilish.

He also disclosed his readiness to order the relocation of the military command structure to Maiduguri, capital of Borno State capital so that the security chiefs can have a feel of what the challenges are and be able to proffer a quicker solution to the menace.

“The president has Niger and Chad ahead of him. This will be his first trip outside the country on obvious matters of security,” Shehus said, adding that the trip is expected to be for one day.

On Saturday evening, the Islamists raided Fika and Galda towns, both in Yobe State, burning a police station and public buildings including a law court, a local administration building and a primary school. They also torched public buildings, besides looting food and fuel stores, according to residents and a police officer.

“Boko Haram gunmen came in two pick-up trucks and on several motorcycles around 9:00 pm (2000 GMT) and kept firing shots haphazardly and firing RPGs on the police station where they forced the policemen to flee and residents to run indoors,” Fika resident, Abubakar Maigoro said.

The Islamists also torched a cluster of government-built homes for civil servants and 13 vehicles parked outside people’s houses, Maigoro said.

“They burnt all the telecom masts in the town and we have to go to hill tops in the bush where we can get phone signals to make calls,” resident Ibrahim Sagir said.

No information on casualties is available because communications are down.

Troops who mobilised from Potiskum, 50 kilometres (30 miles) away, to combat the Islamists were outgunned and forced to withdraw after intense fighting, Maigoro and Sagir said.

Boko Haram radicals also attacked Galda, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Fika, at around 8 pm (1900 GMT).

“The gunmen stormed our town firing everywhere to scare people away before breaking into shops and carting away food and jerry cans of petrol,” resident Muhammad Garba said.

A police officer in Potiskum confirmed the accounts.

“Fika and Galda came under attack from Boko Haram last night. They burnt several public buildings in Fika and looted shops in Galda,”he said, asking not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

“Soldiers deployed from here but they were overpowered by the gunmen,” he said.

“We are yet to receive any report on casualties. Communication with the area has been disrupted as a result of the burning of telecom masts in the attacks.”

President Buhari, on Sunday, condemned the Saturday attacks on Maiduguri, the Borno State capital in which no fewer than 11 persons were killed in strong terms.

The raids followed attacks on Borno towns between Friday and Saturday afternoon, when a suicide bomber killed 26 in an attack on Mosque during afternoon prayers.

The Islamist gunmen who attacked the Yobe towns, according to eyewitnesses, came in pick-up trucks and on motorcycles late Saturday, firing wildly and forcing residents indoors.

In a statement signed by his media officer, Garba Shehu, the President extended his condolences to the families of the victims, affirming that his administration would not tolerate wanton and willful destruction of life by criminal elements that are bent on foisting anarchy in the country.