- Safiu Kehinde
The Nigerian army have read riot act against insurgents, vowing to hunt down and eliminate every terrorist organisation as new group emerges in Nasarawa state.
As announced by the state governor, Abdullahi Sule, during a stakeholders’ meeting on Monday, the new sect known as Wulowulo emerging was said to have emerged as a breakaway faction of Boko Haram.
The group, according to Sule, is now infiltrating the North-Central region.
Reacting to the development at a media briefing in Abuja on Thursday, the Defense Headquarters (DHQ) Director of Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Markus Kangye, said the military would treat all armed groups as terrorists or criminals, irrespective of their self-assigned identities.
“Anybody can just wake up and name a group after himself or claim to be a splinter faction of another terrorist organisation.
“To us, they are all crimInals and terrorists,
“Whatever name you call yourself, terrorist, bandit, or anything else — we will come after you.
“For the armed forces, our dealings with terrorists are simple: either we fix an appointment between them and their maker, or we fix one between them and the judicial system.” He said.
Kangye according to a post shared on X on Friday, further explained that while some crimes fall within police jurisdiction, the military intervenes when the scale of violence or the weaponry involved exceeds the police’s capacity.
“The police have a wide range of duties. Some of the incidents tagged as terrorism are sometimes just murder cases that the police can handle. But when it goes beyond their scope, the military steps in,” he noted.
The DHQ spokesperson assured that ongoing operations nationwide would now include targeting the Wulowulo group to ensure peace and stability in the region.