B’Haram: We are dealing with serious enemy, says Presidency

    
Following the renewed attack on civilians in the North-East, the Presidency has said Nigeria is currently dealing with a serious enemy.

It also likened the activities of the members of the dreaded sect to that of a war situation.

The Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, who stated this while speaking on Channels Television in Abuja on Friday, however gave an assurance that the military was on top of the situation.

He said, “We are dealing with a very, very serious enemy. We are engaged in a war that has been internationalised.

“It is very difficult, very costly in terms of lives lost. But we will overcome. We are in the dying phase of this insurgency.”

Okupe said there was no way the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Keneth Minimah will obey last Wednesday’s order by the Senate Committee on Defence to relocate his office to the 7th Division of the Nigeria Army, Maiduguri, Borno State so as to give verve to the war against Boko Haram insurgents.

The Presidential aide said there was no way the army chief would honour the order because, according to him, the Army cannot take orders from civilians.

According to him, “They (military) can only take order from the President who is their Commander in chief. The army does not take order from civilians.”

He said the leadership of the army had been visiting the site of the war against the extremists on their own and that “they don’t need you and I to tell them” before doing that.

He appealed to Nigerians to be patient, adding that the military was well trained to handle the challenge.

Okupe said, “We only need to have confidence in the people that are working for our country, unless you don’t have confidence in the process that produces them.

“But by the time a man left the NDA, he became a Major General, he became Chief of Army Staff, you have to defer to his opinion on military things.

“Things may not be working, but that does not mean people are not doing what they are supposed to do.”