The reported arrest of a Local Government Chairman in Borno State and his father for aiding and abetting insurgency confirms long held opinion by security analysts that Boko Haram could not have lasted this long without some form of assistance from among the locals. There was also the allegation that they were using the people in the area as human shield. That may have been possible, because those used for that purpose made themselves available, they acquiesced to the evil plot. With this arrest that assertion has also been confirmed.In the early days of that war, there were reports that some of the locals were sabotaging the military operations by giving the soldiers false intelligence. In some cases, the same locals knowingly and deliberately lured the soldiers into ambush that led to the death of officers and men of the armed forces.We have not forgotten reports of the people serving as contractors to the insurgents, supplying them with vital logistics like food, petroleum products and other items. But because of the insincerity of those in command at the time, those reports were not followed up. We note that in most war situations, people get involved for their own personal reasons. Therefore, it is not unlikely that some people within the territory may have exploited the ensuing confusion to their own benefit. But not on the scale that was reported in the North East where the same people the government and the military establishment were striving to protect, encouraged their wards to join the war on the side of the insurgents not just for religious reasons but also for pecuniary and other filial reasons.It was the same locals who helped the insurgents to build a myth of impenetrability around the Sambisa forest which has been proved to be baseless. We have always known that after the battle is won, the real war will start and extend to the roles played by individuals and groups in making a rag-tag band of rascals pretend to be in a position to confront the war tested Nigerian military.That war to get to the bottom of it, in our view, started with the $2billion arms scandal that is still raging. If this administration had not come into power, no one would have known that the campaign against the terrorists was such a goldmine from which government officials at that time, right through to the top, reaped from. Nigerians would not have known how heartless the then military high command was to the point of sending their officers and men into battle without adequate logistic support. The nation would also not have known that our soldiers were callously sacrificed on the altar of greed and avarice.It is obvious now that another phase of that insidious evil is about to open with the conquering of the once dreaded gangsters who were made to acquire a larger than life image of invincibility, a false creation that the powers that be at that time keyed into just to rip the country off.We are aware that with the fall of Sambisa and the dismantling of the headquarters of the terrorists which has sent most of them scampering for cover, the military are on a mop up operation to eliminate every vestige of insurgency in the area. They had warned of the possibility that the terrorists on the run may seek to find succour even among the communities that should know better than to assist them in any way. The arrest of this official who was also active in the Civilian Joint Task Force is a pointer to the ease at which the terrorists penetrated our militarys intelligence circles that prolonged the demise of Boko Haram unnecessarily.In our opinion, the arrest of this shameless local government official and his father may be the tip of the iceberg. If such a high level government personnel could descend so low as to betray the trust reposed in him, then what are we to expect from the ordinary folks who may have involved themselves in the act of betrayal ignorantly without knowing the implication. The military owes the nation a duty, at least for the sake of their comrades in arm who died as a result of that disgraceful sellout, to ensure that the cleaning up process is thorough and total.
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