By Evelyn usman

President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria, AISSON, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, yesterday, advised  the Federal Government to adopt a ‘troop surge strategy’ to end the 10-year-old Boko Haram insurgency.

To attain the feat,  he urged the new Minister of Defence Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (Rtd) to immediately order the deployment of 10,000 troops to the North-East, with a view to  changing the dynamics of the conflict.

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He gave the advice  while reacting to last week’s onslaught on four local government areas in Borno State by members of the Boko Haram sect, where lives were lost, women abducted and  property destroyed.

Describing the attack as a glaring vulnerability of the undefended local government areas, Ekhomu, also attributed it  to the strategy adopted by the Military’s Operation Lafiya Dole, even as he called for the need for  a decisive and quick victory over insurgency, to avoid getting into what he described as ‘stalemated conflict’.

He said: “ The recent super camp strategy  adopted by Operation Lafiya Dole in which troops from smaller military formations were merged to form few large formations was contributory to the insurgent attacks that occurred last week in Gubio, Magumeri, Nganzai and Kondugha local government areas of Borno State.

“ The insurgents observed and exploited the vulnerabilities of undefended local government areas  and moved in to attack and resupply themselves with food, medicine, fuel, and women. Our military planners should know that nature abhors vacuum. From the signature of their actions, these were Islamic State West African Province, ISWAP fighters who prefer to engage in benign Jihad.

“Introducing 10,000 troops into the theater of conflict with adequate logistics, will give the necessary capability to go after the insurgents”, he said,  even as he described the “supercamp” strategy of the military as a defensive measure.

He said, “Since July 2018, Boko Haram has been taking the battle to the military. We have been playing defense and that has resulted in incessant attacks on military formations including the infamous Metele attack of November 2018”.

The security expert further warned against  the practice of recycling fighters into the battle field, noting that there was nothing like a repentant insurgent.

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Rather, he  advised that “captured insurgents should  be imprisoned as enemy combatants and thoroughly investigated to know if they carried out any atrocities and mass-murder before being transferred to the de-radicalization programs for a minimum of five years prior to certification and release. The current practice of catch and release does not provide redress for the atrocities committed by Boko Haram fighters against innocent citizens. The policy is also prolonging the conflict”, he added.

He therefore,  urged  Nigerians  not to  leave the war in the North-East to the military alone, saying: “ A nation fights a war. The military are those in the battlefield but other institutions including the political class, the Police, the intelligence services, the judiciary, the correctional institutions, the para-military agencies and even  citizens ,must join in the fight and help the war effort in their own unique ways. If we don’t defang the snake, it might soon become a bigger threat”.

Vanguard