Army Frees 42 Boko Haram Suspects; …As Group Takes Another LG In Adamawa …Ex-Army Chief Flays Police

Forty- two Boko Haram suspects were yesterday freed by authorities of 7 Division, Nigerian Army, Maiduguri and handed over to Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State.
The army also gave each of the freed suspects N100, 000 to resettle themselves.
Three of the released suspects are from Chad, Burkina Faso and Cameroon and would be repatriated immediately by the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS) to their countries.
Presenting the freed suspects at Government House, Maiduguri, the Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, said the suspects were “released because we found out that they have nothing to do with Boko Haram activities. Out of the 42 suspects cleared by the military this month, three are from the neighboring countries of Burkina Faso, Chad and Cameroon.”
Most of the released suspects were students, traders, carpenters, drivers and panel beaters. There were three elderly persons among them, while the remaining were between the ages of 18 and 30.
Governor Shettima while receiving the suspects announced that some of them will be immediately engaged in their various areas of trade.
“An idle mind they say is the devils’ workshop, therefore we cannot allow you people to be idle. From your introduction, some of you are drivers, others are tailors and some are students. All the drivers would be immediately engaged by the state government and the tailors too will be useful for our free uniform for school children.
For the students, I am going to assist you to go back and complete your studies. Others will also be taken care of appropriately,” the governor said.
Meanwhile, Adamawa State Governor, Bala Ngilari saidBoko Haram, is overwhelming the government of Adamawa State.
According to him, the insurgents may have captured another local government area in the state  going by reports that people were moving out of the location.
Ngilari spoke to journalists in Abuja on the sidelines of a power sector event which he attended at the presidential villa.
He said, “The matter will improve but it is really, really something to worry about.”
When asked to give the number of local governments that have fallen to the insurgents, he said, “I can talk of my senatorial district, Mubi senatorial district, five local governments, Gong, Gombi and I’m just getting a report that perhaps outskirts of Shirni; there’s a semblance of movement in that area. So really we need a lot of intervention. There is need to move in more troops to secure the environs, for really it is a big challenge.”
On whether the situation was hopeless considering the taking over of the home of the country’s Chief of Defence Staff by the insurgents, Ngilari said the matter was way beyond the capturing of the CDS’ home.
“We don’t reduce the issue of insurgency to simply the taking over of the house of the CDS. There are other tough things that make up challenges of insecurity. What about the problem of lack of employment. You know it is a whole long story. So we don’t just reduce it simply to the taking over of the house of the CDS. I think is much more than that,”he said.
Was it an overwhelming challenge for his government, he responded, “absolutely it is a challenge. God is there and we look up to Him for there is nothing impossible with Him. We will do our best but it is not something that should be left only for government.Every citizen has a role to play in this matter in terms of giving information timely, convincing people who are involved in this thing because they live with us and are not from planet Mars. They are part and parcel of the society.”
Asked if Nigeria can overcome this scourge soon, the governor said, “Why not? Nothing is impossible. I don’t know when and I can’t put a time frame on that but anything that affects any part of Nigeria affects the rest of us. So we must all be proactive and see how we can tame this monster because the sooner the better for all of us.”
Meanwhile, former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd), said the Nigeria Police Force has failed in the discharge of its statutory duties adding that it pave way for the army to take over in the Northeast where Boko Haram insurgency has crippled socio-economic activities.
Dambazau stated this shortly after delivering a lecture entitled:”Education, Security and National Development: The Case of Nigeria” Wednesday at the 61st Interdisciplinary Research Discourse organised by the Post Graduate School, University of Ibadan.
He noted that the police failure was responsible for the deployment of soldiers to some sensitive parts of the country.
“The activities of Boko Haram have affected the education of the Northeast and it’s spreading across the whole of northern region. Security is a contemporary challenge we are facing as a nation. The world can never have peace except people have peace in their daily lives. It will impossible for nations to achieve any of its major goals without adequate security. We don’t have a functional law enforcement institution in this country and it’s a major problem for the nation, “he said
The former army chief noted that there was no need for soldiers to mount road blocks and stay in check points if the police had discharged its duty effectively.

Cross section of participants at the 2nd International Conference on Flood and Erosion Prevention, Protection and Mitigation organised by Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Nkpolu, Port Harcourt, recently