President Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday reassured Nigerians of his administration’s commitment to ending Boko Haram insurgency in the north eastern part of Nigeria and going ahead with the 2015 general elections as re-scheduled by INEC.
he President made this promise at the Naval Dockyard in Lagos, where he commissioned 4 Naval ships.
“Let me use this opportunity to promise my good country men and women that we will rout Boko Harm. Our capacity has increased sufficiently and our men are doing wonderfully well in the north,” he said.
He further noted, “We are leaving no stone unturned to equip our armed forces, not just the Navy- today we are here for a Naval ceremony- but also the Army and Air Force will have sufficient capacity.”
The President also commended the military for their efforts at tackling the Boko Haram insurgents, saying that his administration is fully committed to restoring peace to the crisis ridden north eastern states of the country.
President Jonathan also gave an assurance that nothing would stop the polls from going ahead on March 28 and April 11.
“We must conduct our elections as scheduled by INEC, because within this period, we are convinced that we will return the North to the level where the activities of extremists will not affect our elections,” he maintained. “We are working towards that day and night,” he added.
The President also said that he has given directives that Nigerians should be briefed daily on the successes recorded in the fight against insurgency.
The leader of the Islamist group, Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, had threatened mayhem during Nigeria’s presidential election scheduled to hold on March 28.
Shekau, in a new video purportedly released by the group on Tuesday, February 17, issued a warning to Goodluck Jonathan’s government that next month’s elections would be disrupted with violence.
“Allah will not leave you to proceed with these elections even after us, because you are saying that authority is from people to people, which means that people should rule each other, but Allah says that the authority is only to him, only his rule is the one which applies on this land.
“And finally we say that these elections that you are planning to do, will not happen in peace, even if that costs us our lives,” Shekau said.
However, in a swift reaction, the Director, Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade told Channels Television that no amount of threat will deter the military’s operations from taking place in the North East or anywhere in the country.
He also said a lot of success had been achieved in the past week, in the fight against insurgency, adding that Mongunu and other towns hitherto controlled by Boko Haram had been recovered by the Nigerian military.