President Goodluck Jonathan speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria and France 24 Radio on a two-day summit on peace and security in Africa, hosted by President Francois Hollande in France on Saturday said, “We believe that a lot of assistance is coming (to the sect) from outside the country.
“We have not been able to pin down the sources and that is why we are talking to our friends that we should collectively work together to identify the source of their funding.
“A terror on any part of the world is a terror on all of us.”
“Initially, we felt that they were local and as such, some people advocated that because of poverty, these locals carried weapons against the State. So you expect that sophistication will be minimal and you will be able to contain it easily.
“But looking at the calibre of weapons they have, you will find out that they have gone beyond the local expectation. For instance, this last attack on Maiduguri, they came with about 15 to 20 Hilux vehicles and each mounted with two to four rocket launchers.
“They were over 100 and some of them were carrying assault rifles and other weapons. The question then is that, where do they get the weapons? Definitely, these weapons cannot come from the locals, they are coming from somewhere.’’
The President added, “They were talking about some conditions in the barracks and because of that, not quite long, I released N1bn to make sure that they expand the facilities in detention camps, particularly the camp in Giwa Barracks that they complained about.
“Boko Haram members that have been arrested are being detained in a number of places and not only Giwa Barracks.
“Following complaints that I received about that particular barracks, I called the Chief of Defence Staff to go and use the army engineers to quickly expand and improve the facilities so that people arrested will live under normal human conditions.”
“The issue of human rights abuses is blown out of proportion. Whenever they have a major encounter, Boko Haram destroys at will, they kill at will, some of these destructions that are being ascribed to the Nigerian Army are actually done by the Boko Haram sect,’’ he said.
“Even Adamawa , the third state that the emergency rule covers, within this period, there are no issues unlike before that there were repeated killings and bombings.
“Though, we are still having this issue of occasional attacks, but definitely, the emergency rule has helped,’’ he said.
The President also said he had yet to receive a comprehensive report on a French priest that was kidnapped in Northern Cameroon and reported to have been taken to Nigeria.
“No comprehensive information yet on this. But what we know is that it is quite worrisome that the issue of commercial hostage-taking is now a global business. Though, we got the information, but I cannot give any categorical statement. But, we know that the tradition of hostage-takers is mobility because when they are being tracked, they move,” he added.
The President however denied the reports that the Joint Task Force were abusing human rights and added it was the Sect. READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/53907.html
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