Culled From ThisDay
The military authorities
have expressed doubt over the authenticity
of the recent ceasefire said to have been
reached between the federal government
and Boko Haram Islamic insurgents, saying
they were not carried along in the whole
process.
Sources within the military, who confided in
THISDAY Thursday, cast doubts on the
credibility of the ceasefire, which was
spearheaded and announced by the
Minister of Special Duties and Chairman,
Presidential Committee on Dialogue and
Peaceful Resolution on Security Challenges
in the North, Alhaji Tanimu Turaki (SAN).
They noted that the process leading to the
pact with the sect was defective, since the
military authorities and even the
commanders on the ground, especially in
the north-east geopolitical zone, were
never at anytime involved or consulted
before agreeing to the ceasefire.
One of the military personnel demanded to
know the terms of the ceasefire agreement,
asking, “On what grounds was the ceasefire
signed and agreed upon? There must be
caution, so we are not fooled.
“Obviously you cannot just wake up and
announce that there is a ceasefire without
the terms of some agreement.”
Another wondered, “Is that how to sign a
ceasefire. They are not serious. They are
just fooling themselves and I am sure that
the man is on his own.
“Surely, that is not how to sign a ceasefire.
You cannot sign a ceasefire without
carrying the troops along. He cannot fool
anybody.
“I am not aware of any ceasefire or
whatever you call it, neither are the
commanders on the ground to the best of
my knowledge.”
The Director of Defence Information (DDI),
Brig-Gen. Chris Olukolade, while
responding to THISDAY enquiries this week,
had said the military was yet to be
informed of the ceasefire agreement.
“We are not aware of any ceasefire yet,”
was his response when informed about the
purported agreement on Tuesday.
However, Turaki has maintained that the
ceasefire announced on Monday was real
and was signed with the “mainstream” Boko
Haram insurgents.
He insisted that the federal government
had also accepted the ceasefire with the
group and that a formal agreement would
follow soon.
As at the time of going to press, the
minister was yet to respond to the military’s
position that it was not carried along on
the ceasefire arrangement.
Meanwhile, the Defence Headquarters
(DHQ) has authorised the restoration of
mobile phone services in Adamawa State,
while the decision to restore
telecommunications services in Yobe and
Borno States still remain under
consideration.
Olukolade, in a statement Thursday, said
the restoration of phone lines was as a
result of the security evaluation in the
states affected by emergency rule. He said
the development was in line with the
planned phased restoration of phone
services and was in response to the reality
of the situation in the states.
According to Olukayode, phone services
would be restored in the other states as
soon as subsequent evaluation indicates
sufficient clearance for the restoration of
services.
“This measure is also in consideration of
various appeals and need to reassure the
public that the measure is purely for
security reasons, as well as the need to
ease the situation in line with the Ramadan
season,” he said.
He also disclosed that the DHQ fact-finding
team set up in the aftermath of the attack
on a secondary school in Yobe State last
weekend, which led to the death of 30
students, one teacher and a local resident,
has since returned to Abuja to brief the
Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).
He said while in Yobe, the state’s governor,
Ibrahim Gaidam, had commended the
federal government and DHQ for the
interest shown in the security of the state
by promptly sending a high-powered fact-
finding team to the state after the weekend
terrorist attack on Government Secondary
School (GSS), Mamudo. He said Gaidam,
while receiving the team in his office in
Damaturu on Wednesday, declared that the
Joint Task Force (JTF) deployed in the state
was doing its best in addressing the
security challenges.
According to him, the governor remarked
that the incident in Mamudo was an
unfortunate and painful disaster, and
observed that like many other facilities, the
school was situated in a forested
environment hence the action by the
terrorists who exploited the situation to
attack the school and the defenceless
students. Olukolade, also said the leader of
the DHQ team, Maj-Gen Obinali Ariahu,
had informed the governor that the team
was in the state to assess the deployment
of the JTF troops as well as their
requirements to carry out their task in
forestalling any breach of security in the
state.
Despite the visit by the fact-finding team
from DHQ, the state government yesterday
revealed that it would soon map out a plan
to make schools in the state impregnable to
terrorist attacks in the future.
Also, the government has ordered the
movement of students from the school,
which was attacked by suspected terrorists,
to a new boarding facility recently built by
the present administration.
The state’s Commissioner for Education,
Alhaji Mohammed Alamin, said the state’s
governor would soon set up a committee to
look at the secondary school sector and
propose ways to better protect staff and
students and improve the teaching and
learning environment.
Alamin said the state government was
equipping 17 new boarding schools that
had been recently completed and that the
committee would look at how to merge
smaller secondary schools, including that of
Mamudo, and move them to some of the
newly built boarding facilities.
“GSS Mamudo is one of many built by
previous administrations but not equipped
to the right standards. We are now devoting
large amounts of resources to fence some
of these schools and provide them with the
needed facilities.
“We have renovated 16 now and work will
continue. But we feel it is better to merge
some of them and move them to the new
boarding schools we have built,” he said.
Alamin added that the state government
had already started liaising with security
agents and community leaders around the
state to provide adequate security for the
schools.
“This is why Governor Gaidam ordered the
closure of all schools until the new
academic session in September. We will
work within this period so that when
schools resume, we will have a conducive,
secure environment for all our students
and their teachers,” the commissioner said.
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