BY TheCable
President Muhammadu Buhari says some of the persons recruited by Muammar Gaddaffi, former Libyan leader, are making the elimination of the Boko Haram group difficult.
Speaking on Friday at a banquet which Queen Elizabeth II of England hosted for heads of state and government participating in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGOM) in Malta, Buhari said the task of the regional force tackling insurgency “may not be easy” because of the trained militants.
According to Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, Buhari assured the Commonwealth that the fight against Boko Haram would have recorded tremendous progress before its next meeting.
“We have agreed to a joint task-force for the elimination of Boko Haram, but it may not be easy, especially after the events in Libya when trained people with weapons moved back to Sahel region from where they were recruited by the former Libyan leader,” Adesina quoted him as saying in a statement.
“Those weapons and expertise in their use are now aggravating the situation in the Sahel and further south.”
The statement added that Buhari urged the Commonwealth to show greater resolve in helping Nigeria and other developing nations in its ranks to overcome the challenges of economic development, security, terrorism and corruption.
“With the improvement of global communications, terrorism has no borders now. What happened recently in France had a profound effect on all of us, but very few countries realize that Nigeria has suffered terrorist casualties of over 10,000 killed in the last six years,” the statement said.
“Right now, we have over two million internally displaced persons, most of whom are women and children, and most of the children are orphans.”
Adesina said Buhari appealed for greater international support for Nigeria and other African countries “expressed his administration’s appreciation of the assistance already being received from the Commonwealth, Britain, the Group of Seven Industrialized Nations, France and the United States”.
“I am grateful to Britain, France and the United States. They have already sent teams to train the Nigeria Military and Police in the control of terrorism,” the statement read.
“The Commonwealth has helped us in so many ways by the visible support they have been giving to help us overcome the problem of terrorism.”
Ban Ki Moon, secretary-general of the United Nations, was also said to have attended the programme.
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