Army Chief Buratai pays a courtesy visit to Lagos Governor Sanwo-Olu in his office in 2019 (Lagos govt)
Army Chief Buratai pays a courtesy visit to Lagos Governor Sanwo-Olu in his office in 2019 (Lagos govt)
Top Boko Haram members and foot-soldiers have been arrested in Lagos, says army chief Buratai.
Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, says no part of the country is immune from the terrorist Boko Haram sect, including Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital and most populous city.
Lagos state government officials recently told Pulse during an exclusive chat that members of the deadly Boko Haram sect were arrested in the city last December; and that the fear of terrorists invading Lagos partly informed the decision to ban commercial motorcyclists (Okada) from the city center.
In an interview in Lagos this week, army chief Buratai told THISDAY newspaper that members of the sect have been picked up in Lagos in the past.
“There is nowhere you will not find Boko Haram – even in Lagos here, there are Boko Haram (members). In Kaduna, there is 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,” Buratai said.
‘Insurgency has been defeated, terrorism hasn’t’
The military and presidency continue to receive plenty of flak for insisting that the Boko Haram insurgents have been “technically defeated,” despite sporadic attacks and killings by the terrorists every other week–especially in Nigeria’s restive northeast region and epicenter of the insurgency.
Buratai said it is important to distinguish insurgency from terrorism.
“We have defeated insurgency, but now facing the challenge of terrorism,” he said.