•Nigerian soldiers
A former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, says the troops deployed to enforce emergency rule in oil-rich Rivers State should be moved to fight bloodthirsty non-state actors in insurgent-ridden Borno State in North-East Nigeria.
“There is no serious problem going on in Rivers State where we will say let’s send all our troops there. We don’t have a large army,” Amachree said on Channels Television today.
“Our territorial integrity is in question right now and the reputational risk is very high. So, are we going to allow these people to continue doing what they are doing?
“Every Nigerian has to feel secure. Why don’t we move all those soldiers and troops we have in Rivers State doing a state of emergency to Borno State because that has been done before and solved the problem? I think that is where we need a state of emergency right now,” he added.
The ex-secret police director said the alarm sounded by Governor Babagana Zulum that terrorists are gaining ground in Borno should be taken very seriously.
Amachree backed the declaration of a state of emergency in Borno but opposed the suspension of the governor, saying that Zulum is doing a good job.
“We’ve done it (state of emergency in Borno) before and this time you don’t have to remove the governor because I think that Governor Zulum is doing a fantastic job; he’s one of the most serious governors in Nigeria.
“He can be there but let the military take over the other parts of operations and make sure that they clear out these bandits and terrorists,” he said.
For over a decade, Borno State, one of Nigeria’s border states, has suffered attacks at the hands of daredevil marauders and fighters identified as members of terrorist sects Boko Haram and the Islamic State’s West Africa Province.
Hundreds of civilian and military casualties have been recorded with thousands of aboriginal dwellers displaced and splattered across internally displaced persons camps in the state.
