Boko Haram has been defeated, but using suicide bombings ‘to gain relevance’

The Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET) has described Monday’s suicide attack on the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) as a desperation on the remnants of the Boko Haram insurgents to remain relevant.

In a statement on Tuesday, Isaac Ikpa, its executive secretary, urged security agencies not to be deterred but to redouble their efforts in ensuring that the remnants of the insurgents who fled the Sambisa forest are apprehended.

He said the attack was apparently orchestrated to be a major distraction to the ongoing operation to apprehend fleeing Boko Haram fighters, and to also create the impression that the group remains formidable.

“As it was during the group’s ascendancy to the basest form of evil, in its final decline Boko Haram remnants are again turning on places of worship because they are no longer able to stage any daring attacks and must therefore seek soft targets,” he said.

“It speaks volumes that a group that had hinged its insurgency on a demand for the strict application of Sharia law could attack a mosque where Muslims worship.

“The haste with which some people gleefully used this attack to justify their claim that Boko Haram is undefeated calls for concerns as it appears that they were in agreement with the terrorists to strike so that they will have justification to continue insisting the terror group is still relevant.

“Boko Haram was never relevant and should be discussed only in context of what punishment is befitting for its members, their sponsors and sympathisers.”

Ikpa urged the military to remain focused, ignore distractions, and speed up its pursuit of insurgents to reduce their capacity to cause havoc in any part of the country.

He said the pursuit should be expanded to include identifying and prosecuting those that offer support to them.

“Nigerians must remember that the key stopping these remnants of Boko Haram from regrouping remains vigilance,” he said.

“We cannot continue to present a divided front regardless of our religious, ethnic or geo-political differences. The security agencies and the military should be supported to succeed in fishing out those who escaped from the various camps that were captured in Sambisa forest.

“We appeal to the federal government to improve on intelligence gathering now that the war on terror is in a different phase following the defeat of Boko Haram.”