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End To Fight Against Insurgency Unpredictable – CAS

Bayo Oladeji

— April 9, 2014

As April 19, the last day for the ongoing state of emergency rule in the northeast states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe due to the unending terror attacks approaches, the military yesterday noted that it was always impossible to predict the end to any operation against terrorism or insurgency.
The military has been dispatching troops to the three states with a view to stopping the insurgency by the Boko Haram Islamists, but from all indications, the counter-insurgent operations, according to the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, would go beyond  April 19.
Addressing Defence Correspondents in his office on the 50th anniversary of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Marshal Amosu explained that the complexity of the operations against terrorism anywhere in the world makes it difficult to predict when it would end.
He, however, gave the assurance that the elusive peace would have been restored before February 2015 to ensure that the general election holds there.
He said, “Don’t forget that in the fight against terrorism and the insurgency, there are about four aspects involved: you have the issue of the counter- and the anti-, the issue political intervention and economic situation. But the first is that if there is no peace, the only thing you can do is the anti – you can go ahead with the counter- and the anti – terrorism.
“The aspect of introducing the economic activities is almost suspended if the peace is not there. There are variables that would prevent you from achieving your target date.
“But for terrorism and insurgency, you definitely cannot have a target date. Even if you have put everything under control, you may still have sporadic attacks, a well -planned organised attack, one or two of these terrorists may show up with AK 47 (rifles). Even if it is one or two shots he fired, you know that is a terrorist attack, so, it is difficult to give a date, but I want to assure you we would continue working hard to ensure that we bring the entire situation under control.”