By Johnson Eyiangho
Abubakar Shekau, factional leader of the Boko Haram, is careering towards his Waterloo, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, said in Yola on Monday.
Buratai said this when he was asked to comment on the video posted by Shekau on Sunday where he claimed to be alive and in good health.
The army chief not only described Shekau a mad man, he added:
“We don’t have anything to tell him, he is on his way to his waterloo.’’
Waterloo was a village in central Belgium, south of Brussels, where Napoleon Bonaparte was decisively defeated on June 18, 1815. Since then it had been used to signify serious ‘defeat’.
The chief of army staff said the army has stabilised the security situation in the North-East.
He called on the Federal Government and government of the affected states to give priority to issues of peace building, reconstruction and humanitarian needs.
“There is need to ameliorate the challenges of the IDPs,’’ he stressed.
While visiting Gov. Jubrilla Bindow of Adamawa state, Buratai further said that the fight against insurgency had reached an advanced stage.
He said the major challenge now was humanitarian and called on the government to provide the needed facilities to enable the IDPs return to their communities.
The governor commended the army for degrading the insurgents and promised to continue to support the military.
Shekau who surfaced in a video on Sunday was initially reported in August by the army to have been seriously wounded.
His non appearance in another video released earlier this month appeared to have reinforced the story.
But when he appeared yesterday, the army dismissed the video and urged Nigerians not to lose sleep over it.
The army also urged the people to disregard the threats by Shekau to attack some Nigerian towns, saying the man is deranged.
Colonel Sani usman, the army spokesman said the video was the latest ranting of the factional leader of the insurgent group, assuring that the Nigerian military is capable of dealing with remnants of the terrorists.
“The video has shown beyond all reasonable doubt the earlier suspicion that the purported factional terrorists group leader is mentally sick and unstable.
“The ranting is also another sign that the end is near for him which is part of the signs of all wicked people.
“The Nigerian Army wishes to assure the public that nobody should be bothered with the contents of the video clip.
