The Theater Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Lucky Irabor has said that Boko Haram elements have infiltrated many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), camps in Maiduguri and environs and called on the general public to be wary of them.
General Irabor who disclosed this while receiving a souvenir presented to him by the Correspondents` Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) at the Command and Control Centre, Maimalari Cantonment Maiduguri as a parting gift said “we have rounded up 126 Boko Haram elements that infiltrated the IDP camp in Damboa and they are still undergoing profiling”.
He said following an intelligence report his troops arrested one suspected Boko Haram element at the Damboa IDP camp who partook in the Boko Haram attack on military formation in Sabon Gari town of Damboa local government.
“We discovered an Identity card of a soldier who was killed in the attack and his ATM card and when interrogated he confessed that he actually partook in the attack and that a lot of Boko Haram elements have infiltrated the IDP camp”, he added.
He called on the general public to continue to cooperate with the security agencies until the Boko Haram elements are completely flushed out of the North-east and the country at large.
He said in continuation of their operation within the theater, more especially “operation big Punch” mop up operation in Sambiza forest and other places, these efforts are yielding more results.
The theater Commander said he was touched and humbled by the honour done to him by the Correspondents` Chapel of NUJ Borno state, stressing that he will continue to remember and cherish the gift and that he has enjoyed a good working relationship with journalists in Borno .
While presenting the souvenir, the Chairman of the Borno state Correspondents’ Chapel of the NUJ, Alhaji Haruna Dauda said the outgoing Theater Commander has brought positive change in the military-media relations in the theater and that journalists in Bornu were going to miss him.