Why Boko Haram insurgency won’t end now – Ndume

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Ali Ndume, on Wednesday blamed the insurgency on lack of resources and inadequate military personnel.

He said that except the Federal Government addresses those issues the country would continue to have the challenge of terrorism in the North-East.

Ndume said: “The challenge that the military have now is lack of resources and inadequate personnel. As long as the resources are not deployed in terms of what they would need, we would continue to have this (insurgency) challenge.

“In an operation like this, we have only 30, 000 soldiers on ground which is grossly inadequate. They (Federal Government) have to do something urgently about that.”

The senator said the three local government areas in Borno State recently attacked by Boko Haram fighters remained deserted.

According to him, the residents of the areas were yet to return to their ancestral homes.

Ndume explained that the personnel of the Nigerian Armed Forces had remained in the areas to ensure that the insurgents did not return to perpetrate havoc after the resettlement of the civilians.

He added: “The civilians ran away because of the fears of what would happen to them. They refused to come back. The governor is now appealing to the military to secure the areas so that the residents could return.

“The residents of the affected local government areas in Borno State, taken over by the military following the Boko Haram attacks, have not started returning but the government is making efforts to ensure the return of the people.”

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Ndume said the renewed insurgency in the North-East was very unfortunate.

He, however, expressed optimism that the military would restore normalcy to the zone as soon as possible.

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