The Chief of Defense Staff, General Christopher Musa, has revealed that terrorist have taken over 73 unmanned forest in Niger State.
Musa disclosed this on Tuesday when he appeared before the House of Representatives alongside the service Chiefs and the Inspector General of Police.
Musa decried that the country’s borders are porous, stressing that there are about a thousand borders where people come in and out without checking.
He noted: “That is where we have the movement of light weapons and small arms. Human trafficking is rampant. It is important that we must establish good border control, so that we can know the people coming in and going out.”
“Niger State alone has over 73 unmanned forests. These are places where non-state actors are operating.”
The defence chief revealed that arrested Boko Haram terrorists in the North-east plan attacks from the prison in active connivance with prison warders.
Musa also decried that some of the prison warders in the North-east are corrupt because they aide arrested Boko Haram terrorists in planning their operation.
He stated: “The issue of correctional facilities. In the Northeast, when we were debriefing some of the arrested Boko Haram, they were able to tell us how from the prison, they could plan operations out in the field. They pass funds across. They use some of the warders there. We are not saying all of them are corrupt. They use their accounts and the deal is that anyone whose account is used, they share it 50/50. Those are the challenges.”
The defence chief also fingered the judiciary for frustrating the war against terrorism in the country.
His words: “The issue of judiciary. I have been in the Northeast, there were a lot of Boko Haram elements that have been captured. We have kept them for five/six years. We the armed forces can arrest but cannot prosecute. Some of them have been found wanting but no prosecution. We are keeping them for this lengthy period—everyone is accusing the Armed forces in keeping them against their human rights but we cannot prosecute.
“Another aspect of the judiciary is that you use all your effort to make an arrest, you hand them over, and before you enter your vehicle, the man has been released on bail. Now you have risked yourself in doing that, by the time he is released, he goes to tell the people the person that arrest him.
“Now your family members or you are at risk. It is getting to a state where the security forces do not want to make any effort. We have the issue in the South-South. A lot of the ships—the last ship that was arrested, was arrested 10 years ago—the ship went and changed its name, changed its colour and came back again. 10 years we were arrested again. By the time you hand over the ship, before you know it, it is released. I think that is one area we must look into. We must have a special court to look into it. That is why we arrest and destroy them because the longer we keep them, it becomes a problem because we come under pressure to release them.”