The Defence Headquarters (DHQ), on Monday, expressed worry over the trend of some residents in the northeast who decline to provide useful information to security agencies.
Coordinator Defence Media Operations, Major-General John Enenche, while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, said some locals weaken the military’s efforts at combating the rising spate of insecurity in the region by not providing relevant information.
“That has been our worry,” he said. “It’s a concern to us. You need a guide, you need information. Will they tell us? That’s a question that we have to ask. Yes, sometimes. And most times, no. And that was one of the issues we have been ensuring to overcome, with civil-military cooperation activities, reaching out to them, even sending people by proxy to talk to them.
“Those are the things that have been one of the banes of the final success in the whole of this operation.
“Our patrols will pass through a route, in a village. By the time you are going, some people are looking at you. When you are coming back, the next thing is that you meet an IED planted on the road. And people saw them, they won’t tell you. So that’s the area I think we are all working together as stakeholders.
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“And it is not possible to force information out of people. It’s not possible, just like they say you force a horse to the river, but not to drink water. So all we are trying to do is to build up their confidence in the system and encourage them that look, this is not good for you. Now they do not expect that this will happen, even those ones that they deceived, that they are preaching to them.”
On Saturday morning, no fewer than 43 farmers were slaughtered in a deadly assault in Zabarmari, Borno by suspected Boko Haram insurgents.
The United Nations has pegged the death toll at 110.
Responding to the United Nation’s claim that 110 people were killed in Zabarmari, the DHQ spokesman said the DHQ’s casualty count still stood at 43.
“I have to respond, it is coming from the United Nation,” he said. “This is a source that identified itself that 110 persons specifically were killed.”
He added that the military is still searching for casualties.
“Probably we may count up to the figure he gave in the future. But as it is, up till the time I came here, what we have counted with the locals is still 43. And we are hoping that we don’t get beyond that. So that’s the real situation,” he said.
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