The military says it is going after the economic lifeline of Boko Haram as part of the new strategies to bring the terrorist group on its knees.
The military equally said one of the new strategies put in place to combat the terrorist group was a roving military force instead of stationed troops.
The Head of the military counter-insurgency operations in the North-East (Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole), Maj. Gen. Olusegun Adeniyi, said the military had not relocated from any of the towns in Borno.
He spoke to journalists in Maiduguri on Friday during the destruction of vehicles, fish, hides and skin, seized from transporters believed to have been trading with the Boko Haram insurgents.
He said rather the military had vacated the trenches and reduced the roadblocks and in its stead, evolved mobile units where the troops were always moving and roving the troubled areas with the preparedness to counter and attack any threat.
He said the military found out that the stationed formation made it easy for the insurgents to attack military facilities but with the latest strategy, the insurgents were in for a surprise.
He said they could now easily take up the insurgents by surprise and were now more alive to give the insurgents a good fight.
On the need to quickly resolve the crisis, he said the insurgents had shown to have a running economy and that must be crushed to cripple them.
He noted that fishery in the Baga area of the Lake Chad was hitherto banned and it must be enforced to stop finances to the terrorist group.
He decried the nonchalant attitude of some traders and commercial vehicle operators who conveyed the insurgents’ fish to the markets.
Adeniyi noted that the insurgents engaged in fishery and skin trades were in complicity with some members of society.
“Boko Haram insurgents have a running business to generate money to fund their dastardly activities.
“We fully recognise fishery industry in Nigeria but the fishery done by Boko Haram is to create confusion, continue insurgency and destruction of the North-East.
“Anybody who allows his horse or camel to carry fish for the Boko Haram, you are part of the insurgents because you are aiding them.”
Adeniyi revealed that four vehicles conveying insurgents’ fishery products were seized on Maiduguri-Ngala Road by operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
He explained that the military also seized fertilisers metal and welding equipment from the insurgents’ logistics suppliers, adding that the items were being used by the insurgents to produce Improvised Explosive Devices.
He called on the people and the National Union of Road Transport Workers to warn their members against transporting goods for the insurgents, saying such vehicles would be seized and destroyed.