‘Terrorists killed 2,000 in 180 days’

Chairman of the National Information Centre on the ongoing war against insurgents, Mr. Mike Omeri

The Federal Government on Tuesday said about 2,000 persons, including security personnel and foreigners, had been lost to terrorists activities in the last 180 days.

The government said it was concerned that such number of lives had died, but added that the operations to “degrade the terrorists command structure to weaken their effectiveness’’ had recorded success.

The National Coordinator, National Information Centre, Mr. Mike Omeri, who stated this while giving update on government efforts to rescue the 219 Chibok schoolgirls, on Tuesday in Abuja, explained that the FG would not disclose the operational strategies for the rescue of the abducted girls in spite of agitation by some individuals and groups in the country.

He claimed that some successes had been recorded in the effort, as well as in the ongoing counter-insurgency operations in the North-East.

Omeri said though government was willing to provide credible information on the anti-terror campaign, “operational reality does not permit unbridled disclosure of operational plans and strategies…as some agitators have continued to advocate.”

According him, other plans that cannot be disclosed include the day-by-day account of troops’ movement, engagement and deployment of hardware.

The NIC Coordinator listed the efforts to combat terrorists to include the drafting of troops to carry out land and aerial surveillance and occasional bombardment of insurgents’ locations and enlistment of foreign partners.

Others, he said, were regional collaboration, activities of activist groups such as the BringBackOurGirls and recent diplomatic shuttle by President Goodluck Jonathan to some countries.

He added, “The effort at inciting the populace against the government and its agencies is, to say the least, very unfortunate. It is necessary to caution those involved that there is a clear difference between credible civil agitation and subversive preoccupations.

“Nigerians must consider it more patriotic to support the efforts than to place it – government under pressure.”

The BringBackOurGirls group which was invited to the news conference, did not honour the invitation. Instead, it embarked on a march to the Presidential Villa, which was stopped by the Police.