“Boko Haram Might Be Adopting New Tactics And Are Looking For PR Wins”

By Seun Adeuyi

A Political Commentator, Ose Anenih says Boko Haram group may be engaging in a Public Relations (PR) war hitting targets to embarrass President Muhammadu Buhari and and the Presidency.

Anenih, while buttressing his point in a tweet via his Twitter handle, @ose_anenih, on Sunday, mentioned the abduction of the Kankara Schoolboys as soon as the President arrived Katsina State.

On December 11th, Buhari flew off to take a holiday at his country home in Daura, Katsina State. That night hundreds of gunmen riding on motorbikes stormed a boarding school in Kankara Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.

Some schoolboys jumped over a fence and ran away when they heard gunshots. But more than 300 were rounded up and herded into the surrounding forest.

Boko Haram had claimed responsibility for the abduction of the students.

But, Governor Aminu Bello Masari, in an interview said that “bandits and not Boko Haram kidnapped the schoolboys from the government science school, and they will soon be reunited with their families.”

“All 344 schoolboys have been rescued, and no ransom was paid,” Masari said shortly after security agencies picked up the boys.

Similarly, Anineh noted the attack on a military base on Armed Forces Remembrance Day (yesterday).

Defence Spokesman, Bernard Onyeuko, in a statement, said the insurgents struck a camp of Nigerian soldiers in Marte, Borno, on Saturday in an attempt to overrun the base.

The soldiers reportedly retreated from the base and jihadists took it over for the most part of Saturday. The attack sparked immediate concerns about a reinvigorated Boko Haram, following a few weeks of relative calm on the frontlines of the campaign, now in its eleventh year.

Anenih tweeted, “Boko Haram might be adopting new tactics & are looking for PR wins.

“Like the abduction of the Kankara Boys as soon as Buhari landed in Katsina; now this attack on a military base on #ArmedForcesRemembranceDay

“Is the counter to this tactic the denial of the oxygen of publicity?”

Buhari’s administration has been dogged by rising insecurity in the northeastern parts of the country, and rampant attacks on the population by Boko Haram, particularly in Borno state.