General Kenneth Minimah, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), has said that the army would be able to determine where the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls are being held captivity after troops take Sambisa Forest.
Minimah disclosed this during a chat with journalists.
Army chief assured Nigerians that in the next six months the nation would forget that there was a Boko Haram sect which once intimidated Nigeria.
He said: “By the time we capture Sambisa Forest completely, we will be able to find out where the Chibok girls are, because as it is now, anybody you ask says they did not see them, they are not there. When we capture Sambisa forest we will be able to know where they are and government will take it up from there.
“You know the Nigerian is one creature with large accommodation of mind, and whose memory shifts as soon and he soon forgets everything that happened. In the next six months I’m sure that Nigerians would have forgotten that Boko Haram once reigned and terrorized a region. I believe so.”
Meanwhile, Minimah stated that while the terrorists would have been totally overcome, remnants of the sect would continue to involve in criminality.
“I will tell you, militarily, they were defeated but as armed groups, thieves, armed robbers, or people who go about to steal, burn markets and loot to go back to the forests, which will continue for a while, that the other programmes of government will take care of those ones. Bomb explosion also happens in civilized worlds where there are no terrorists,” he added.
Army chief also spoke on the just-concluded general elections, and recorded the performance of the army staff deployed for poll duties 100 per cent. He said the presence of troops on the streets gave the electors confidence to come out and exercise their franchise.
“I think if you ask me to score myself, I will score myself 100 per cent, because for our state of political development we cannot expect to see our elections held as it is done in the most advanced nations.
“We are still bogged down by little prejudices of inter party issues where we can always have issues about thuggery, violence, ballot box snatching and confusion around the arena of polling units; it has to do with our level of political development.”
Minimah has recently promised that the Nigerian army would never again sustain humiliating loss of towns to Boko Haram terrorists.
Meanwhile, the year passed after Boko Haram abducted more than 200 schoolgirls in Borno state. But the parents are still waiting them at home despite the promises from the government to rescue them.
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