Soldiers from Chad drive in the retaken town of Damasak, Nigeria, March 18, 2015. Armies from Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger launched an offensive to end Boko Haram's six-year campaign, which has killed thousands in northern Nigeria and spilled over into Cameroon and Niger. Photo: CNS Boko Haram sympathisers and others who support Nigeria being an Islamic State are stalling the fight against militants in the West African country, a local priest has said.
According to Fr George Ehusani, a priest of the Diocese of Lokoja and executive director of the Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, many of those secretly backing the activities of militants in Nigeria occupy key positions in various sectors of the country.
In a July 22 interview with ACI Africa, Fr Ehusani said that the sympathisers are thwarting every effort to defeat the militants by either supporting them materially or leaking key information pertaining planned offensives from the country’s military ranks.
“There are people who may not be as radical and as brutal as this Boko Haram or these violent bandits, but who share their sentiments, who share some of their ideological orientations, who sympathise with them; people who believe that Nigeria… should be fully Islamic,” Fr. Ehusani says.