Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed has appealed to Nigerian media to stop giving oxygen to Boko Haram by glamorizing their activities. He said this while speaking as a guest on Channels TV monitored by LIB.
“Just as I said in my meeting with the newspapers editors in Lagos on the 21st of December, the military has largely met the deadline to defeat Boko Haram, and the military has matched the capacity of terrorists to carry out the attacks they used to.
“Of course, I also mentioned that the terrorists will continue to attack such targets as markets, motor parks, entertainment centers and houses of worship; and this is exactly what is going on. We know that in an insurgency, the war does not end in one day. The attack on soft targets will continue, but we also want to appeal to the media to stop giving oxygen to the Boko Haram insurgency.
“When we glamorize the attacks, it gives the terrorists more life and in a time of insurgency like this, the media also has a role to play, which is not to glamorize the attacks. What is happening is not unexpected; what is happening is what will happen in any insurgency.
“But the fact of the attack is that Boko Haram has been sufficiently defeated. Boko Haram can no longer take any territory away from us. And if you look at the context, about a year ago, Boko Haram had complete control of 20 out of 37 local governments in Borno state.
“There were about six local governments in Yobe and about four in Adamawa. If today, Boko Haram is operating from one or two local governments in the entire country, I think the military has largely succeeded in wiping out Boko Haram.”he said.
