The Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd.), has defended the government’s efforts to combat insecurity, saying the vast size of areas occupied by terrorists makes rescue operations challenging.
Musa, who spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, said security forces were rescuing abducted victims regularly but often had to contend with terrorists disappearing into vast forests before troops could locate them.
He said the Sambisa Forest was as large as Belgium, arguing that the scale of the terrain made security operations more difficult.
“Few ones now, efforts have been made. If you notice, on a daily basis now, we are really getting, rescuing a lot of them. Yeah, because, like I said, we have 923 square kilometres. So this government is overwhelmed. Sambisa Forest is as big as Belgium, as a country. So when people talk about this, they make it look as if it is one small football field and we are refusing to do anything,” he said.
Musa explained that terrorists often moved into forests before security agencies received information about an abduction.
“These places are massive areas. The forest within Kwara comes in from Burkina Faso to Benin Republic into Nigeria and flows through all these things. So what they do is that once these abductions are done, before the information gets to anybody, these guys are already into the forest.
“So it takes a long time for us to follow them, to be able to trace over there. And then the last one that was done in Kwara State, we had to quarantine where they were going, deny them oxygen, and that’s where we were able to get them.”
PUNCH Online had reported that security forces had rescued abducted victims in several operations without arresting or killing the terrorists holding them, including an operation in Kwara State.
Explaining how such rescues were achieved, Musa said terrorists often abandoned their captives when they came under pressure from security forces.
Musa added that security forces sought to block terrorists’ access to essential supplies.
The minister also said ransom payments could provide leads for tracing terrorists, adding that the Central Bank of Nigeria was working to track funds linked to criminal activities.
Musa further urged state governors to reconsider the distribution of motorcycles as palliatives, warning that some could eventually end up with terrorists and provide them with greater mobility.
Source: punchng.com
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