By Prince Osuagwu & Evelyn Usman
LAGOS—Chief of  Army Staff, COAS, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai yesterday disclosed that the Nigerian Army would be moving its   base to Borno State, as part of plan to reintegrate residents displaced by the Boko Haram terrorists, even as he insisted that the sect had totally lost its hold on the northern part of the country.

Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai / AFP

Buratai spoke during a telephonic interview between him and the Acting Commander, United States Army, Africa, Brigadier-General Eugene Leboeuf, with participating journalists from Africa and beyond, at the U S Embassy in Victoria island, Lagos, to mark the end of the end of the 6th African Land Forces Summit, held in Abuja.

He said: “This year, the whole of Nigerian Army is moving to northern Borno state as art of moves to reinstate those who fled because of Boko Haram. We will be with them in the next four five months.

”The narrative is still same. We will still keep them (Boko Haram) hostage. Be rest assured the Nigerian army is still on  ground and other components of the security agents are fully on ground. When you look at where we  are coming from, where we are and where we are going to, you would know that Boko Haram has been degraded.”

Boko Haram as a formidable force used to move around freely across the country. There reached Abuja, Lokoja, Sokoto, Kano, Kaduna , Jos, Bauchi and virtually across many parts of the country especially the northern and central parts. But since 2015, there was no major attack outside the northeast. Same was in 2017.. In this context you will agree with me that Boko Haram has been defeated. If you are in Maiduguri or any part of the North east, you will know Boko Haram has been defeated.”

The arm drone according to him was used “ especially within the Sabisa forest which was one of the strong hold of Boko Haram, the Shekau group most especially. It was used for force multiplier, most importantly, it provides us with intelligence to be able to take movement of arms. We also used them to move live bodies of troupes and taking the insurgents within that area, as well as improved the response time in the area.

On his part, Brig. General Leboeuf stated that the African land summit would go a long way to solving security challenges in the African region , adding that part of the discussions was based on intelligence gathering training on attacks and techniques of foreign invasions.