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RIMDAN: There Must Be A System Of Checking People’s Movement

By Isa Abdusalami
12 July 2015   |   12:33 am
General Yakubu Rimdan (rtd) commanded the First and Fourth Guard Battalions in Lagos; later he became Commander of the 31 Airborne Brigade, the Para-Trooper Brigade in Makurdi. He spoke with ISA ABDULSALAMI AHOVI on the repeated Boko Haram assaults and way out of the quagmire. Finding the sponsors IT is unfortunate that the activities of…
Rimdan

Rimdan

General Yakubu Rimdan (rtd) commanded the First and Fourth Guard Battalions in Lagos; later he became Commander of the 31 Airborne Brigade, the Para-Trooper Brigade in Makurdi. He spoke with ISA ABDULSALAMI AHOVI on the repeated Boko Haram assaults and way out of the quagmire.

Finding the sponsors
IT is unfortunate that the activities of Boko Haram within the past two weeks have gained wider dimension, and indeed, not good for this country of ours. The problems are of various dimensions. First and foremost, we have the problem of people who are known to have financed the activities of Boko Haram in this country. Some of them have been identified as the sponsors of the sect. Some were mere allegations.

So many big names have been called. But you see, it is not so easy to make allegations against anybody for having done any wrong, and then you leave it at that. You must have sufficient reasons to produce evidence that will make you bring it before the court of law. But for those that have been identified, I think I want to believe that the government has been very slow in dealing with them, legally. Some of them, I even know are senators.

Quite a number of them have been identified, but then nobody has been so decisive in taking any action against such people.

The suicide bombers we are talking about, yes, this thing has escalated, like I said, within the past one or two weeks. But who are the perpetrators? That is the question. It is not men. It is mostly these unde-rage girls who cover themselves with their loincloths or hijab. They conceal their faces; nobody even sees them to know who is this.

This thing needs to be checked. There must be a system of checking these people, mostly the children or the females who are under-aged and are being used. It is unfortunate that these under-age people are being brainwashed and they don’t even know what they are doing. So, they are being deceived and parents have to do something about it. The parents have to find out where their children are.

Let me say this. It may sound sour. There has been no Christian that has been identified as carrying any explosive. As far as records are concerned, I have not been told, I have not known any Christian carrying explosives, either to the Church or Mosque. But most of the people who perpetrate this dastardly act are from a different religion because even among Muslims, there are Muslims. They are in different groups. But among those Muslims, there are special people there, whose children carry out this dastardly act. My belief is that they could be checked by the introduction of what we call in the military, mines detectors. There are instruments that if you are carrying any explosives or any metal that is inimical, something that is dangerous, it will easily detect it and I believe that in all the churches and mosques, before anybody gets near there, or at market entrances, there must be people there to find out what anybody is carrying into such public places.

Let me say one thing again. Talking about security here and there, I want to see a situation where everybody, whether man or woman, finds themselves to be a security person. We cannot leave everything in the hands of military. So, everybody will be security conscious. There should be enlightenment by the government. More and more of it, so that people would be aware of what is happening. If you suspect anybody should immediately make people around there apprehend that person.

The parents of some of the Almajiris don’t even know where their children are, and it is very easy to brainwash them and make them do even what they don’t know, they don’t know the implication of what they are doing.

What I am saying now is that the establishment of various command structures in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa is okay. But there is also a need to reinforce all the troops at the front-line so that the operations will go on concurrently from the different directions. That is, in Adamawa, in Yobe, in Borno States, these things should be done concurrently. I want to advise that aerial surveys or activities should also take place mostly at daytime. And I think once that is done, it will reduce some of the problems we are now having. General Buhari is doing very well. But I will say people should not rush him into taking decisions.

Removal of roadblocks
Much as one should not quarrel with the removal of roadblocks, I think there is need for us to consider certain implications of the removal. As I said before, actually before the advent of Boko Haram, we were not having the roadblocks. But because of the present situation in hand, we have been compelled as a necessity to have them (roadblocks). So, I think, now that Boko Haram has heightened its activities, we should look inward again.

I think the reason why we had explosions in Jos, Zaria and other surrounding towns is simply because the threat that was posed to those carrying explosives, arms and ammunition is no more there. So, people feel they are very free now to enter any town or city without being checked. They enter with all sorts of explosives, all sorts of arms, which is why people are carrying weapons.

think if we can maintain the roadblocks at the outskirts of towns, it will help us a long way. If we allow people free movements from one town to the other with their weapons, ammunition, explosives, then the danger posed to the various cities is that these people (Boko Haram) will be operating freely and they will be committing a lot of havoc in cities. So, I think that area needs to be looked into.

The roadblocks may be removed from the central cities but at the outskirts of the towns, they can use roadblocks to check the inflow of people with arms and ammunition. The Boko Haram has been dislodged. They are running helter skelter and so they are finding places of abode, freedom of movement, freedom of the use of their explosives, weapons and other dangerous and deadly devices where innocent people are.

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