The Chairman of Senate committee on army, Ali Ndume has disclosed that inadequate resources and soldiers are factors behind the continuous insurgency and terrorist attack in the north east.
Despite the stand of the Federal Government and Nigerian Army that they have technically defeated Boko Haram in the north-east region, thousands of citizens have fled their homes over fear of attacks.
According to PUNCH report on Wednesday, Ndume said the insurgency will persist unless the federal government deploys adequate resources and increases the number of soldiers in the area.
“The challenge that the military have now is lack of resources and inadequate personnel. As long as the resources are not deployed in terms of what they would need, we would continue to have this (insurgency) challenge,” he said.
“In an operation like this, we have only 30, 000 soldiers on ground which is grossly inadequate. They (federal government) have to do something urgently about that.”
Ndume said a lot of persons have been displaced, and that civilians in the affected communities have fled the area.
But he added that the government was making efforts to ensure the return of displaced citizens.
“The civilians ran away because of the fears of what would happen to them. They refused to come back. The governor is now appealing to the military to secure the areas so that the residents could return,” he said.
“The residents of the affected local government areas in Borno State, taken over by the military following the Boko Haram attacks, have not started returning but the government is making efforts to ensure the return of the people.”
The senator decried the abduction of Lawan Andimi, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Michika local government area in Adamawa by Boko Haram on Thursday.
He asked the military to do everything necessary to ensure that he is released and that normalcy returns in the affected communities and states.
