The civilian Joint Task Force have shot dead two teenage female suicide bombers in explosive vests as they made an attempt to sneak into Maiduguri, Borno State capital.
They were sighted in Ummarari village, along Mulai axis of Maiduguri-Damboa road in the outskirts of Maiduguri at the weekend but refused to stop when ordered to do so. They instead attempted to detonate their explosives, before the security operatives, also in the area, took them down.
Hours before the interception of the suicide bombers, soldiers had gunned down a Boko Haram kingpin during an operation that led to the rescue of 211 civilian captives from a Boko Haram den.
The spokesperson of the Nigeria Army, Sani Usman, confirmed the development in a statement he sent to the media. Meanwhile, the Coalition of Civil Societies and Media Executives for Good Governance in Nigeria, COCMEGG, has called for an end to criticisms of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
The civil society organizations and media executives from across the country, said after a meeting at the weekend that there was urgent need to halt the attack of the Nigerian Army by Amnesty International (AI) over the prosecution of the war against Boko Haram and attempts to divide the country.
President of COCMEGG, Kenneth Aigbegbele, said the AI report smacks of bias, capable of undermining the hard fought war by the army against the insurgents and could demoralise its personnel in their constitutional roles of defending the territorial integrity of the nation.
COCMEGG said AI’s commentaries were unnecessary, distractive, unfair, and do not represent the true situation in the prosecution of the war against the insurgents by the Nigerian Army.
COCMEGG said AI strangely did not mention in its report nor suggest ways of providing support for the internally displaced persons (IDPs), nor proffer ways of rebuilding the devastated northeast or how to promote peace and tranquility in the country.
