Informants Not Backing War Against Boko Haram In Northeast – DHQ

Major-General John Enenche, the spokesperson of the Defence Headquarter, has lamented that some locals in the northeast are refusing to aide the war against Boko Haram.

Naija News recalls that Boko Haram Terrorist group on Saturday beheaded 43 farmers in Zabarmari, less than 20 km from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

Zambarmari is located in Jere Local Government Area of Borno State.

The bodies of the slain farmers whose throats were slit were on Sunday morning buried in a brief ceremony led by Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State.

But the United Nations in a report stated that over 110 farmers were actually killed and not the 43 reported in the media.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday, Enenche said some locals have refused to provide relevant information to the military.

He said: “That has been our worry,” adding that, “It’s a concern to us. You need a guide, you need information. Will they tell us? That’s a question that we have to ask. Yes, sometimes. And most times, no. And that was one of the issues we have been ensuring to overcome, with civil-military cooperation activities, reaching out to them, even sending people by proxy to talk to them.

“Those are the things that have been one of the banes of the final success in the whole of this operation.

“Our patrols will pass through a route, in a village. By the time you are going, some people are looking at you. When you are coming back, the next thing is that you meet an IED planted on the road. And people saw them, they won’t tell you. So that’s the area I think we are all working together as stakeholders.

“And it is not possible to force information out of people. It’s not possible, just like they say you force a horse to the river, but not to drink water. So all we are trying to do is to build up their confidence in the system and encourage them that look, this is not good for you. Now they do not expect that this will happen, even those ones that they deceived, that they are preaching to them.”