Residents of Borno state have written an open letter to President Buhari, informing him that they have lost confidence in the military over the lingering Boko Haram crisis in the North East.
In the letter which was signed by one Hassan Boguma, a traditional ruler, the residents accused the military of not doing enough as Boko Haram now attacks without any countermeasure.
They stressed that contrary to President Buhari’s claims, Boko Haram has not been decimated.
According to the residents, soldiers in the state have lost the zeal to fight the insurgents.
The statement in part reads;
“The attempts by Boko Haram to intimidate and attack communities in the state and the actions of our soldiers in the frontline has made us lose confidence in the recent military’s performance in protecting not only the vulnerable citizens but even the territorial boundaries of the nation.
“Your Excellency, while lauding the efforts of the N/Army for their gallantry in other parts of the state, much is needed to be done in areas around MMC and Jere and in recent attacks on Nganzai, Gajiganna, Gubio, Magumeri, Amurwa, Kalali Abdul, Wanori and yesterday, Dalori villages.
he incessant and daring attacks by BHT is becoming a source of great concern to citizens living in the two local governments and five villages simultaneously attacked for three days without any countermeasures or even a response to distress calls from the locals.
“A country’s armed forces were supposed to be a proud and patriotic defenders of both the nation’s territories and its citizens, but our today’s men of the armed forces were either overwhelmed by the desire to amass wealth by all means and, on the blood of the innocent Nigerian citizens, or have been compromised by theories of conspiracy and collaboration by deserting their formations in the face of attacks by the insurgents.
You are either fed with false information, or raising hopes of technical defeat of the BH which is far from the truth.
The recent systematic attacks on Gubio a strategic battalion and forcing them to withdraw is not only a shame but a slap on the face of our armed forces and a smack of mockery and abuse on the strength and professionalism of our armed forces which was once a formidable force in the Africa.
Patriotism being the hallmark of all military operations is near absent, in most cases men that were lacking in experiences of war tactics were posted a seeming guerrilla like operations.
The special forces that would have dealt with the peculiarities of insurgency were not properly involved in the operation and munitions that could have been used were not on.