Thread by @bulamabukarti

Highlight of Sen. @alindume Press Briefing after a fact-finding visit:

He said only 1% of Nigeria's 2019 budget goes to Defense

1% grossly inadequate. When you deduct "leaking", the actual sum that will go to defence will be less than 0.5%.

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channelstv.com/2019/10/15/bok…

Over 847 fallen soldiers buried in one cemetery in Maiduguri and there are other cemeteries.

This indicates that the number of Nigerian soldiers killed by #BokoHaram could be in the thousands and that is just the official figures which is mostly deflated.

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He indicated that the army doesn't have enough weapons and equipment to fight BH. This is correct. Nigerian soldiers are using guns bought in the 1970s to fight BH. Clearly, the militia has superior power. The question is: where did all the money sunk into Boko Haram go to?

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Ndume stated that there are 30,000 soldiers on ground fighting Boko Haram and implied that number isn't adequate.

This is wrong. The highest estimate of BH fighters is around 7,000. How could you say 30,000 trained troops can't fight 7,000 militants?

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He said BH carried out 4 simultaneous attacks on the day of his visit: two in Gubio, one in Manguno and another in Dalori. In another breath, Ndume claimed that BH has been defeated.

This is contradiction in terms. How can a "defeated" group launch 4 simultaneous assaults?

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Ndume indicates that #ISWAP was paid ransom to release the Dapchi girls. This contradicts government's claim that money didn't exchange hands. He rightly decried the continued detention of Leah Sharibu and blamed negotiators for leaving Sharibu saying if it were him, ...

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... he would refuse to taken the 100 girls if Sharibu weren't released with them.

I think that is DEAD wrong. How could you refuse to accept your £100,000 from a robber who robbed £101,000 until they return the £1,000 they kept? I'd first take the £100,000 and secure it.

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