Nigeria’s military on Friday attacked Boko Haram Islamist strongholds across the northeast, launching deadly air strikes on insurgent camps, the military said, while residents reported that forces had deployed in border areas to block the militants from fleeing.

Following the declaration of state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states by President Goodluck Jonathan last Tuesday, and the deployment of over 3000 troops and Counter Terrorists Squad (CTS) within 24 hours of the declaration, the military, yesterday, launched air and ground offensive in the thick forests of Sambisa, Borno State, an area which the Boko Haram sect was reported to have used as a recruiting and training base.

The alleged mastermind of the Christmas day bomb blast that killed about 44 persons and wounded 75 others at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church at Madalla, Niger State, in 2011, Kabiru Umar, a.k.a Kabiru Sokoto, yesterday, insisted he had no case to answer.

Northern elders, yesterday, broke their silence on the slamming of state of emergency on three states, describing the action of President Goodluck Jonathan as an indirect declaration of war on Northern Nigeria.

The President’s action, which took the northern elders by surprise, came barely three weeks after Jonathan accepted a roadmap from the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, on how to end the Boko Haram insurgency.

Troops, yesterday, moved into Yola, Adamawa State capital and Maiduguri, capital of Borno State, barely 24 hours after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a State of Emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states in response to Boko Haram insurgency which has claimed several lives and destroyed many property.