The Ijaw National Congress has appealed to the military to purge itself of fifth columnists and Boko Haram collaborators in order to win the fight against terrorism.
The INC stated that it would be difficult to fight Boko Haram to a standstill without a focus and a high level of patriotism among the Nigerian soldiers.
The spokesman of the INC, Mr. Victor Borubo, who spoke in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Sunday, explained that Nigerian soldiers would have rescued the abducted Chibok girls if it had purged itself of bad eggs, especially Boko Haram collaborators.
Borubo lamented that the kidnapped Chibok girls could still be missing after two months in the violent sect’s den.
“For Nigeria to succeed in the fight against terrorism, the military must purge itself of bad eggs, fifth columnists and Boko Haram collaborators. The war against terrorism cannot be won without a high level of patriotism among soldiers,” Borubo stressed.
On the complaint of poor funding by the military, the INC spokesman advised the military to make do with the resources at its disposal, adding that other sectors in the country were also facing the challenge of poor funding.
“It is necessary to say that the military should manage the resources at its disposal. The Nigerian military has shown that it is among the best in the world,” he said.
Borubo, however, urged the Federal Government to cut down on its expenses and channel some of the funds to the military to enable it (military) to fight the Boko Haram insurgents.
He, however, called on the Federal Government not to succumb to any pressure to swap the detained Boko Haram suspects with the abducted Chibok schoolgirls.
Borubo, who described Boko Haram members as murderers, argued that swapping them with the innocent Chibok girls would mean setting a bad precedence.
He added that rather than exchange detained Boko Haram members with the abducted girls, the Federal Government should embrace other means of ensuring that the girls regained freedom.
“They (Federal Government) cannot swap criminals and murderers with innocent schoolgirls. Those girls have not committed any crime and were only stolen by Boko Haram from their school.
“Swapping Boko Haram with those girls means setting a bad precedence. It means members of the sect will wake up another day, kidnapped schoolchildren and ask for the release of their detained members.
“Government should find other ways of rescuing the kidnapped girls. It is not compulsory that they should free criminals and allow them to become a threat to our society again,” Borubo stressed.
Meanwhile, Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State has expressed the hope that the insecurity bedeviling the North-East geo-political zone of the country will end soon.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that Yuguda expressed this hope when he spoke with newsmen in Gombe on Saturday.
He said although the problem had lingered for long, it had not defied solutions as the issue would be resolved at the appropriate time.
“Everything has its own time; efforts are being made by both the states and the Federal Government to address the security problems in the country.
“I assure you that it is just a matter of time; there is time to start something and there is time to end it when it comes to issues that have to do with security challenge.
“Nigeria is not the only nation that has security challenge.
“But we pray that very soon we see an end to some of these security challenges that we are confronted with, particularly the ones in our zone here, the North-East”, he said.
