Molly Kilete, Abuja
The General Officer Commanding(GOC), 7 Division Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Abdulwahab Eyitayo, said over 8,000 members of the Boko Haram Terrorists grouped have so far surrendered to troops from the hideouts and enclaves of Sambisa Forests and other stronghold of the insurgents.
This is just as the GOC, has advised terrorists who are still hibernating in the bushes and carrying out attacks in the north east to surrender now that they have the opportunity to do so or have themselves to blame.
The GOC, made this known when the director army public relations Brigadier General led a media team of Defence correspondents to his office at the division headquarters in Maiduguri.
He said over 8,000, Boko Haram fighters and their families have surrendered to the military.
He said the window for repentant terrorists to surrender would soon be closed after which the military would embark on a full onslaught to rout them out of the country.
He attributed the massive surrendering of the terrorists to the intensive bombardment of their enclaves and blocking of food and other logistics to their locations by troops.
He said Investigations have revealed that most of terrorists were foreigners with a few Nigerian collaborators who want to destabilize the peace of the country at all cost.
He said by the the expiration of the window given for the terrorists to surrender, the counter terrorism war would take another dimension as there was no going back on routine the terrorists and other criminal disturbing the peace of the country.
Gen Eyitayo who described the massive number of surrendered terrorists as a welcome development, said “One of the reasons they are surrendering in droves is overwhelming fire power from troops and it is because every man’s endeavour is motivated by his family wellbeing, that is why they are coming out with their families.
He said “We started seeing the signs from June this year. Our intensified operations had blocked their logistics routes and supplies, bombardments all over, that is why they started surrendering and diseases have overpowered many of them.
“It was better because in the end, the Army will clear all of them and their sympathizers combined”.