We Have Since Beaten Boko Haram – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has insisted that the Federal Government has defeated the insurgent Boko Haram invoking terror especially in the northern part of Nigeria.

He said this in his new year address aired on the national television of Nigerian Television Authority, NTA on Monday.

‘We have since defeated Boko Haram’ the president reaffirmed.

However, this statement came at the moment when the controversial approval of the Governors’ Forum for the $1 billion Excess Crude Oil fund to combat the Boko Haram insurgency is trending.

Governor Fayose of Ekiti state had refuted the claim credited to the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo that: “It was after a national security summit of the National Economic Council that Governors at their forum decided to approve some money for national security”, which he said at the National Executive Council Meeting on December 18 he presided over.

Governor Fayose Said he never gave his approval on that ground.

“For posterity sake, I wish to place it on record that I was not among the governors who approved the withdrawal of almost half of our savings in the Excess Crude Account, which belongs to the three tiers of government to fight an already defeated insurgency,” he declared.

“Since they said they have defeated Boko Haram, what else do they need a
whopping sum of $1 billion (over N360 billion) for; if not to fund the 2019 elections?”, Fayose queried.

This tackles the declaration of the President far back in 2015 that Boko Haram has been “technically defeated”.

On security, President Buhari further stated that “Isolated attacks still occur, but even the best-policed countries cannot prevent determined criminals from committing terrible acts of terror as we have seen during the past years in Europe, Asia, Middle East, elsewhere in Africa and in America” but assured that his administration is determined to protect all Nigerians.

He finally acknowledged the efforts of the Armed forces, the Police, other para-military forces and traditional authorities who are working round the clock to ensure that Nigerians go about normal business in reasonable safety.