The International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS) Nigeria/West Africa Chapter has asked the Nigerian Government to direct its military to go all out in the fight against Boko Haram and other insurgent groups and immediately restore peace and tranquillity to the country.

Chairman of the chapter, retired Air Vice Marshall Muhammad Audu-Bida, said this yesterday in Abuja while disclosing the outcome of a pancake meeting of the executive board of the society held on Monday in Abuja.

Audu-Bida said the board members considered the worsening humanitarian situation in North-East Nigeria as well as adjoining states and neighbouring countries and concluded that it was time that all be set aside to wrest the area from rampaging insurgents and restore peace.

According to him, figures from local and international agencies like National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Human Rights Watch, United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and Internally Displaced Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reveal that mounting intolerable number of Nigerians have been displaced or made refugees in neighbouring countries.

Audu-Bida noted that as at March this year, close to 4 million Nigerians were displaced while over 100,000 were recorded as sheltering in refugee camps in Niger, Chad and Cameroun.

He declared that this cannot be allowed to continue because humanitarian aid agencies are unable to reach these displaced people for fear of being attacked or kidnapped by terrorists who have no respect for rules of engagement in their operations.

“As a former military general myself, I am aware that our military is capable of quelling this insurgency because they have the training, courage and equipment to accomplish the task of securing the country’s territory but they should be allowed by political authorities to carry out their duties unfettered by political, ethnic or religious coloration and or sentiments,” Audu-Bida said.

He lamented that the insurgency has been allowed to fester for too long and things have got out of hand especially with the recent sacking of the police mobile training institution in Gwoza, Borno State. With this, the insurgents will become more emboldened unless decisive action is taken immediately to wipe them out, Audu-Bida warned.

“For the good of millions of Nigerians, the military should take decisive action now to stop further displacement of Nigerians, destruction of farmlands, lives and property as well as occupying our territory, a situation which has become very embarrassing to Nigerians, government and the armed forces,” he stated.

While sympathising with parents and relatives of the abducted Chibok secondary school girls and other abducted Nigerians, the TIEMS Chairman said: “Reportedly, parents of the girls have patriotically called on the Federal Government not to allow Boko Haram insurgents to use the girls as human shields to continue to wreck havoc on the country.”

He noted that fighting insurgency and restoring peace have never been a piece of cake in any clime and cited the instance of the United States of America which refused to yield to Islamic State terrorists who demanded ransom in exchange for the American captured journalist but rather continued to rain heavy sorties on the insurgents in Northern Iraq.

•Photo shows Boko Haram insurgents.

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