The Theatre Command of Operation Lafiya Dole has vowed to end the activities of the Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorist group in Nigeria.
Olusegun Adeniyi, Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole made the declaration while insisting that OPLD will never allow insurgents get hold of any part of Nigeria again.
Speaking during a review of the ongoing counter-insurgency operation of the Nigerian Armed Forces in the northeast on Friday, Adeniyi said the military had succeeded in reducing the sect from the terrorist army they used to be, to mere criminals because of the defeat they suffered since 2015, NAN reports.
The Major General dismissed claims of insurgents’ attempt to retake any territory “as dream that will never come to pass for them”.
Adeniyi disclosed that Boko Haram had in 2013 transmuted from a terrorist group to a terrorist army through intense attacks on towns, villages, communities, markets and military bases.
He said: “In 2015; immediately President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office he gave order that all military commands be relocated to Maiduguri.
“It was only then that the military commenced attacks on the insurgents, recapturing the territories under the control of the terrorists numbering over 24 towns and villages.
“The exodus of ISIS terrorists from the Middle East and subsequent alliance with a faction of Boko Haram through the Lake Chad region is another dimension.”
The Theatre Commander insisted that terrorists have been defeated since 2017 and would remain so.
Adeniyi stressed that the current pockets of insurgency of the terrorist had an international dimension.
The Commander disclosed that the proliferation of arms in the Sahel, occasioned by the expulsion of armed militias from Libya created the opportunity for the terrorists to try to find their feet.
“Military will continue to fight to ensure that ISIS does not have a foothold in the region like they succeeded in other countries.
” The adoption of ‘Super Camp’ strategy had further compounded the problem of the insurgents, adding that the strategy had enabled the troops to have a longer reach, ” he said.
This is coming at a time when the Nigerian Air Force destroyed a compound housing Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists in Borno State.
Similarly, Buhari had vowed to equip the military, with the aim of combating Boko Haram, kidnapping, and other forms of crime in Nigeria.
