By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja – (Sundiata Post)In compliance to the directives issued by the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, the Service Chiefs, Tuesday arrived Maiduguri, Borno State capital to stamp out Boko Haram and their activities in the area.
Recalls that the activities of the insurgents have been on the increase in the recent past.
According to report monitored on Channels TV, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai was the first to arrive Maiduguri, the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency.
Sundiata Post further recalls that Osinbajo gave the order last week following series of mind-boggling attacks carried out by the terrorists, especially the ambush on an oil exploration team in northeast Tuesday, which left more than 50 people dead.
Last week’s attack in the Magumeri area of Borno State on a convoy of specialists from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), was the Islamist militants’ deadliest in months.
It underscored the persistent threat posed by the jihadists, despite government claims they were a spent force, and also the risks associated with the hunt for crude in the volatile Lake Chad basin.
Sources say 10 academic and technical staff from the geology department of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) were among those said to have been abducted on Tuesday.
Security operatives and some members of the civilian JTF, numbering up to 30, were also reported to have fallen into the trap of the terrorists.
The attack came barely three weeks after troops of the Operation Lafiya Dole (151 Battalion) discovered freshly dug holes prepared for Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) by suspected elements of Boko Haram terrorists.
Shortly after the ambush, Nigerian Army issued a statement claiming that the military troops in t North East have successfully rescued members of the oil exploration team and members of Civilian Joint Task Force, abducted by the Boko Haram terrorists.
The statement which was later found to be false, was swiftly retracted with an apology from the Army through its spokesman, Brigadier General Sani Usman, early Sunday.
Brigadier General Sani Usman who described the claim as most regrettable, stressed that the action was not deliberate. He attributed the error to efforts at ensuring timely dissemination of information on activities of troops in all theatre of operations.
According to him,“We have strived to keep the public informed on our activities with no intention of distorting any fact,”