The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, has disclosed that members of Boko Haram are now all over the country, including Lagos State.
Buratai disclosed this in an interview with THISDAY and Arise News Channel.
He said having been dislodged from their base in the North East, the terrorists are now scattered all over the country.
He told his interviewers: “We have defeated insurgency, but facing the challenge of terrorism.
“There is no where you will not find Boko Haram – even in Lagos here, there are Boko Haram.
“In Kaduna, there are Boko Haram.
“There are more across the North East.
“Many have been arrested here in Lagos.
“We have been tracking them.
“We arrest them and take them into custody.
“We must differentiate between insurgency and terrorism.
“I have tried to tell them at the National Assembly.
“Someone said three local governments are under Boko Haram.
“How?
“These guys are not controlling any territory.
“They attempted to establish their territory, caliphate in Gwoza, but they have not been able to because they were flushed out.
“That is insurgency.
“They are not holding any territory.
“Typically, that is the end of insurgency.
“But what of terrorism?
“Terrorism will outlive you and me and probably everybody in this house because terrorism, since it started, just like armed robbery, like kidnapping, burglary, cultism, it would continue.
“These are all smaller parts of terrorism.
“It is when it goes higher that you have arsons, like it happened in Borno yesterday, murder and so on deliberately, no cause.
“What is happening now is just criminality.
“Since last year, we have not given them any respite.
“They are now blocked.
“They no longer have access to foods; their movements are constrained; they no longer get the fuel they needed easily because we have strangulated them.
“They are now in depressed state; so, they go out with vengeance to attack commuters to abduct individuals and targeting certain religious persons just for their propaganda.
“This is also is one of the Boko Haram terrorist’s strategy: propaganda.”
There are Boko Haram Terrorists now all over Nigeria, including Lagos
