Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ayodele Oke, has
declared that “before March 28, no territory of
Nigeria will be under control of Boko Haram.”
He gave the assurance Wednesday in the United
States of America while attending an event at
the Atlantic Council, Washington.
Oke, in an interview with Foreign Policy
magazine, deflected criticisms that the on-going
offensive against Boko Haram launched since the
postponement of the presidential ballot from
Feb. 14 to March 28 indicates the delay was a
political move by incumbent Goodluck Jonathan.
“It is above partisan politics when we are
discussing national security,” he said.
“Nigerians need this democracy more than the
international community does,” he further said.
Oke did take more seriously was Boko Haram’s
recent claim they are now aligned to the Islamic
State, which they announced in a video posted
online on Saturday. That connection, if proven
real, would be especially dangerous because of
the financial support ISIS could provide to Boko
Haram.
Although many have dismissed the group’s
announcement as mere propaganda, Oke said
the Nigerian government is examining it closely.
“Never underrate what they’re planning to do or
who they’re meeting,” he said. “We should deal
with it rather an ignoring it and coming back to
say we made an egregious error.”
According to an online story by Foreign Policy,
“both Oke and Gabriel E. Okoi, Nigeria’s chief of
defence intelligence, took turns jabbing at the
American response to Nigeria’s request for
military assistance, including the cancellation of
an American training programme for the
Nigerian military in late 2014. The U.S. will not
provide military equipment to the Nigerian
military due to past human rights violations, but
Okoi said the training programme the Americans
offered was meant for more modern equipment
than the Nigerian army could provide.
“Our friends disappointed us,” he reportedly
said. “We could not get the arms we needed,
nor could we get the ammunition.”
“We begged…almost on our knees begging
people to help us.”
The report said that Okoi also claimed that even
when it came to providing real-time intelligence,
the United States did not act fast enough.
“We had to shout before you acted,” he was
quoted as having said.
And his response to Americans and other
politicians who claim they’ve done more than
enough?
“Please, check yourselves.”
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