Fighter jet kills scores of insurgents in Borno villages

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• Two die as helicopter crashes

• FG plans new counter-terrorism strategy

Scores of Boko Haram terrorists have been killed by Air Force fighter jets intercepted them on their way to attack some villages in Askira/ Uba Local Government Area of Borno state, just as another military helicopter crashed in Bama Local Government Area of the state, killing two airforce personnel.
It was learnt that the gunmen who had sent threat letters to some villages in Askira/Uba Local Government Area had ambushed people fleeing their villages to Askira and Uba towns for safety, killing six of them at the weekend.
A resident of the area, Mr. John Amos, said yesterday that the fleeing residents notified security operatives, who alerted a fighter jet that promptly responded and threw bombs on the Boko Haram insurgents, killing scores of them.
The villages attacked, according to Amos, include Lassa, Rimingo, File, Murtavu and four other smaller villages and communities in the local government area. A security source yesterday confirmed the incident to journalists in Maiduguri.

A political leader from the area, who craved for anonymity, also told journalists that hundreds of villagers from about nine villages had converged on the local government secretariat as internally displaced persons (IDPs), awaiting government assistance as they did not want to return to their villages for fear that Boko Haram militants could stage another attack.
Efforts to get the Police Public Relation Officer, Mr. Gideon Jibrin, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), for confirmation proved abortive as his phone was switched off as at press time. However, the military suffered a setback yesterday in the anti-terror war as a Nigerian Air Force Mi-35 helicopter, on a training mission, crashed due to a technical fault near Bama.
The Defence Headquarters in a statement by Defence Director of Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, confirmed the death of the co-pilot and the technician onboard. Olukolade said the rescue operation for the Mi-35 helicopter was ongoing. According to him, investigation has commenced to unravel the circumstances that led to the accident. The statement added that it had been established that the crash was not due to any enemy action.
He said details on the crash would be made known after investigation. He was, however, silent on whether or not there were causalities as a result of the crash. Olukolade at another forum yesterday also said the military would resist any attempt by the outlawed Boko Haram sect to take any part of the Nigerian territory. He spoke against the backdrop of reports that suspected insurgents had overrun Damboa, a town in Borno State, and purportedly hoisted their flag, to indicate that they were in control of the area.
But Olukolade said the Federal Government would not concede an inch of its territory to “terrorists” under any guise. According to him, the Nigerian Armed Forces will defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation.
Fielding questions from journalists at the National Information Centre (NIC) in Abuja yesterday, Olukolade said security operatives were alive to their statutory responsibility of containing threats to the Nigerian state. He said; “We are not conceding any portion of the country to terrorist groups; we are sure that Nigerian security agencies have firmed up deployment to that area…
We are going to reverse any form of security threat around the area.” The National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) has, however, said the Federal Government is working on fresh strategy to end insurgency.
Dasuki, represented by the Coordinator of Counter-Terrorism in his office, Gen. Sarkin Yaki Bello (rtd), at a workshop on security consciousness and awareness for stakeholders in the hospitality industry, also urged all security agencies to liaise with those interfacing with the public, especially stakeholders in the hotel industry, to check the security challenges facing Nigeria.
He explained that part of the initial steps taken by the government was streamlining measures in which operators in the hospitality industry could identify and expose personalities whose identities were questionable. He added that the programme was premised on the fact that hotel operators were in constant touch with the larger populace and their collaboration would be worthwhile in tackling insurgency.
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