Zabarmari Killing: Villagers Provide Information To Boko Haram-DHQ

John Enenche, coordinator of defence media operations, says some residents of Borno state sabotage the efforts of the military by providing information on its movement and activities to Boko Haram.

Enenche said this on Monday while answering questions on the killing of 45 farmers  at Zabarmari in Jere local government area of Borno state by the insurgents when he featured on Sunrise Daily, a programme on a nationl  Television and monitored by our correspondent.

He said information gathered from the attack showed that some of the insurgents were already cohabiting with the villagers before the attack.

Asked how the military had no prior intelligence on the attack, Enenche said the army needs information from locals to aid its operation.

“That has been our worry. It’s a concern to us. You need a guide, you need information. Will they tell us? That’s a question that we have to ask. Yes, sometimes. And most times, no. And that was one of the issues we have been ensuring to overcome, with civil-military cooperation activities, reaching out to them, even sending people by proxy to talk to them,” Enenche said.

“Those are the things that have been one of the banes of the final success in the whole of this operation. Our patrols will pass through a route, in a village. By the time you are going, some people are looking at you. When you are coming back, the next thing is that you meet an IED planted on the road. And people saw them, they won’t tell you. So that’s the area I think we are all working together as stakeholders.

“And it is not possible to force information out of people. It’s not possible, just like they say you force a horse to the river, but not to drink water. So all we are trying to do is to build up their confidence in the system and encourage them that look, this is not good for you. Now they do not expect that this will happen, even those ones that they deceived, that they are preaching to them.”