group’s camps will be destroyed
within six weeks and poll date will
not be moved again.
Nigeria’s National Security Advisor
has said the date of the country’s
general election, which has been
postponed until March 28, will not
be moved again and that all known
camps belonging to the armed
group Boko Haram will be
destroyed in the next six weeks.
“All known Boko Haram camps will
be taken out. They won’t be there.
They will be dismantled,” Sambo
Dasuki told the AFP news agency on
Monday.
“Those dates will not be shifted
again,” Dasuki said when asked if
the polls, initially scheduled for
February 14, could be pushed back
further.
Dasuki said he believed the new
military co-operation agreed two
weeks ago between Nigeria and its
neighbours – Cameroon, Chad and
Niger – will prove decisive against
Boko Haram.
Dasuki had urged election officials
on Saturday to postpone the vote
on the grounds that the military
could not provide nationwide
election security because all
available resources were being
deployed to the northeast to fight
Boko Haram.
His justification for the delay was
widely criticised, in part because
the military is not primarily
responsible for election security in
Nigeria.
Troops have only been called in
when police and civil defence units
have needed reinforcements.
Dasuki said there was no political
motive underlying his call for a
delay.
“It’s not everybody who does things
for selfish reasons. Some of us have
a conscience,” he said.
Dasuki said the postponement could
easily help the opposition All
Progressives Congress (APC),
because improved security could
boost turnout in the northeast, an
APC stronghold.
‘Seize them’
Boko Haram leader Abubakar
Shekau released a video on Monday
vowing to defeat the planned 8,700
strong African military force.
Shekau said: “We can seize them
one by one.”
The remarks came amid a fresh
attack in neighbouring Niger by the
armed group on Monday.
The fighters launched an assault on
a prison in the southeastern border
town of Diffa, which they first
attacked on Friday, but were
repelled after a heavy exchange of
fire, humanitarian sources said.
“The attack failed. The assailants
were quite easily pushed back,” one
source told AFP.
Nigeria’s military has its own
largely failed to contain the
uprising over the last six years.
Source: AFP
