Army Chief, Senator Disagree Over Spread Of Terrorism

Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika and a serving Senator, Babafemi Ojudu, on Wednesday expressed opposing views about the spread of terrorism in the country.

While Ihejirika believes that terrorism in the country as propagated by the Boko Haram Islamic sect cannot spread beyond the north-eastern part of the country, Senator Ojudu says Boko Haram currently exists in Lagos, Ogun and Rivers states.

Both of them however gave their opposing views at two different events in the country. While Ihejirika, represented by the Director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Attahiru Ibrahim, spoke during the monthly interactive session with Defence correspondents in his office, gave the assurance and stressed that insurgency did not spread to other parts of the country, Senator Ojudu spoke at a lecture organised to honour Professor Ropo Sekoni, a retired Professor of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, in Lagos.

Ihejirika said the army had put in place several strategies to curtail any spread of insurgency. One of such, he explained, is the setting up of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act to handle related issues.

Ihejirika said: "the Nigerian Army will remain eternally vigilant with a view to reducing vulnerability through proactive measures. This is aimed at preventing the spread of terrorism to other parts of the country.

"These proactive measures have yielded results with the recent arrest in Lagos and Ogun states of 42 suspected terrorists. I, therefore, wish to reassure Nigerians that the Nigerian Army will continue to constantly review its strategies towards greater sophistication in tackling the security challenges facing the country."

He added that the army was agile enough and proactive by continually enhancing her capability to pre-empt, dislocate and disrupt terrorist threat.

"This will be achieved through effective collaboration with other security agencies in order to defeat terrorists and other criminal elements and ensure safety of lives and property of law abiding citizens," he said.

He gave out some contacts for members of the public to call the Army in any case of security threat. The contacts are 08160030300, 07053333123 and 08191555888 with This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

In his view, however, Senator Ojudu said terrorism had already spread to the three states in the western and southern parts of the country following the extensive military onslaught against the insurgents in recent.

Ojudu quoted military authorities as giving a team of senators details of documents recovered from the dreaded Islamist insurgents revealing that they still have about 6, 000 fighters who are still combat ready.

Ojudu said: "we were told by the military that the sect members are moving into Ogere in Ogun State, Lagos and Port Harcourt. The military said they are trying to flush them them out but we don’t know how much they have succeeding.

"The Boko Haram issue is the biggest problem before us but we are not tackling it with urgency, we are busy talking about 2015."

He said the team that visited the military were made to see videos of attacks including the one in which the Boko Haram members butchered 10 traders from Bodija Market in Ibadan, Oyo state when they travelled to the north to buy beans.