The Military Needs Funds And Soldiers To Defeat Boko Haram – Ndume Cries Out

The Senate committee chairman on Army, Ali Ndume, has said unless Nigerian troops are well-equipped to efficiently combat Boko Haram, activities of the insurgents will linger in the Northeast.

Ndume said this against the backdrop of resurgent attacks by the insurgents in recent times, including the abduction of the chairman of the Adamawa chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Lawan Andimi, on Thursday.

THE WHISTLER reports that Andimi’s abduction and other recent attacks by the insurgents have led to increased calls on the federal government to take drastic steps to secure the citizens.

Ndume urged the military to secure the release of Andimi who was abducted in Michika local government area in Adamawa by Boko Haram on Thursday.

“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,” he told Punch.

“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.”

According to the senator, recent activities of the insurgents have led to the displacement of more persons in the region.

“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,” he said.