An ex-aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, has challenged Nigerian security agencies to eliminate the leader of Boko Haram terrorist sect, Abubakar Shekau, with the same force the security agencies used to crush a top member of the Indigenous People of Biafra, one Commander Ikonso.
The PUNCH had earlier reported that police operatives and their counterparts from the Nigerian Army and Department of State Services killed the IPOB commander and six other militia members in Imo State.
The IPOB men, who were members of the secessionist group’s security arm, the Eastern Security Network, were killed during an early morning raid on their hideout at Awomama village, Oru East Local Government Area of the state on Saturday.
IPOB has since threatened “madness”, saying the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, will “pay dearly” for the killing of its commander. Both IPOB and Boko Haram have been designated as terrorist groups by the Federal Government.
Reacting, Omokri challenged the security forces to take out the leaders of other criminal and terrorist elements in the country the same way Ikonso was ambushed.
He tweeted, “Can’t Nigeria’s Army also take out leaders of Boko Haram, bandits and killer herdsmen troubling Nigeria, the same way they took out alleged ESN leader, Ikonso? Or, are they (security agencies) only strong when it comes to ESN, and weak when it comes to Boko Haram, bandits and herdsmen?”
Nigeria’s North-East rose to inglorious fame when Mohammed Yusuf, founder of militant Islamist group Boko Haram, was killed in 2009. Yusuf’s death birthed a macabre era of unprecedented uprising; carnage, bombings, kidnappings, amongst other crimes against humanity, even till date.
Millions of aboriginal Borno, Yobe and Adamawa residents have also been displaced by the unprintable activities of the insurgents.
For more than 12 years now, Boko Haram continues to oppress the people of the North-East, gradually spreading its demonic tentacles to the North-West. While the Army and the Presidency keep claiming the group has been ‘technically defeated’ and ‘weakened’, the Shekau’s bloodthirsty faction continues to strike with daring effrontery and crude savagery.
