Tricky terrorists in trenches, more than tough teachers in tertiary institutions, have deflated the egos of state officials, Garba Shehu, The Media Aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, has finally admitted.
The Media Aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu, during an interview with BBC Hausa, admitted that terrorists had fooled the Nigerian Government by not keeping to their promise of releasing hostages kidnapped during the Abuja-Kaduna train attack in March.
The Daily Nigeria’s narrative of Mr Shehu’s explanation has it thus:
“The terrorist leader demanded we release his pregnant wife. The government took her to the hospital and made sure she was properly taken care of.
“And she gave birth to twins. We showed him the pictures of his wife and the twins. After that, we handed them over to his parents,” Mr Shehu said.
“After releasing his wife and children, he made a fresh demand that we release some children who were detained in Adamawa.
“The government sent a plane in the middle of the night and brought the children. We were hoping that after they were released, they would also honour their promise, but unfortunately, they didn’t.
“Instead, what followed was a fresh demand requesting a ransom. So, it’s wrong to say the government is not doing enough,” the presidential spokesman lamented.”
The SBM intelligence report showed that 3,379 people were kidnapped and 474 people killed within 12 months spanning July 2021 and June 2022. The estimated ransom paid amounted to N1.65 billion (N1,647,100,000).
Previously, just about two years ago, Mr Shehu boasted that “Boko Haram is defeated now” in an interview with the BBC. Now, he is forced to finally admit to the BBC that the leader of the serial murder gang has the upper hand over the government under his principal, Mr Buhari, despite all the concessions Mr Buhari made to the leader of the terrorists.
The terrorists that bombed the Kaduna-bound train in March killed 9 persons and still held 27 people hostage after the others were freed upon paying a huge ransom.