Crime

68 Boko Haram insurgents renounce membership, surrender to Army

Published

9 years ago

August 24, 2017

In what appears to be a response to the renewed mandate handed the Nigerian military by President Buhari to exterminate remnants of Boko Haram insurgents, 68 terrorists have surrendered to the Nigerian Army.

Army said on Thursday those that had surrendered to troops in Borno did so within the last three weeks.

Making this disclosure, the Deputy Director Public Relations, Theatre Command, Operation Lafiya Dole, Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, said there were intensification of air and land assault against the insurgents, forcing some of them to renounce belligerence.

“Air and artillery bombardments were backed by long range patrols and ambushes targeted at preventing fleeing Boko Haram insurgents from escaping and also denying them access to logistics supply,” he reiterated.

Col. Nwachukwu added that the onslaught against the terrorists has pushed them to the brink of defeat galvanising in some of them surrendering in the last few weeks.

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“In their testimonies, the insurgents revealed that most of their enclaves are untenable which made life unbearable for them. TheThe relentless offensive forced many of them to surrender to the troops.

“Those who surrendered are currently undergoing rehabilitation and deradicalisation process under the Federal Government’s Safe Corridor operation.

“Undoubtedly, the ongoing operations by troops of Operation LAFIYA DOLE are yielding results by putting enormous pressure on the insurgents.

“Evidently, this led to the recent plea by one of the factional group leaders calling for international support,” he further added.

He spokesperson reiterated that the force will not relent in their oars to completely clear every Boko Haram insurgent still hiding in the fringes in the northeast.