Chad’s military inflicted “many dead and wounded” in air strikes against Boko Haram jihadists, President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said on Thursday.

“We carried out several air strikes on enemy positions that resulted in many dead and wounded,” Deby told reporters in the Lake Chad region, without giving specific numbers.

Deby, who gave an interview in full military fatigues, said he had “personally” launched the counter-attack against Boko Haram, which targeted the Chadian army in an attack last month in the western region, close to the border with Nigeria.

The Chad government had vowed to “obliterate” Boko Haram when launching its operation in late October after the jihadists killed around 40 people and wounded dozens more in a raid on a military garrison.

The operation “aims not only to secure our peaceful population” but also to “hunt down, root out and obliterate the capability of Boko Haram and its affiliates to cause harm”, interim Prime Minister Abderahim Bireme Hamid told reporters last week.

In a vast expanse of water and swamps, the Lake Chad region’s countless islets serve as hideouts for jihadist groups, such as Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), who carry out regular attacks on the country’s army and civilians.

Chad and its neighbours Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon set up a multinational force of some 8,500 soldiers in the area in 2015 to tackle the jihadists.

Boko Haram launched an insurgency in Nigeria in 2009, leaving more than 40,000 people dead, and the organisation has since spread to neighbouring countries.

In March 2020, the Chadian army suffered its biggest ever one-day losses in the region, when around 100 troops died in a raid on the lake’s Bohoma peninsula.

AFP

The hurriedly written press statement by the embattled Patrick Osadebamwen and OCHIAKA UGWU recently impeached as Exco of the FCT Council of the NUJ is really sad, appalling and completely unwarranted.
It is a brazen attempt by them to usurp the powers of the National Secretariat of the Union.

Article 5(9c, d) of the NUJ Constitution is so unambiguous that does not need any interpretation.

Article 5 sub section 9(C) states inter alia; “The Credentials Committee at the National level shall act independently of the President, National Secretary and any other National Officers, while the Credentials Committee at the State Council level shall be independent of State officers of the Union but shall be responsible and answerable to the National Secretariat.

5 (9d) The Credentials Committee at the State Council level shall be nominated by the State Congress subject to the approval of the National Secretariat.”

From the constitutional provisions, it is clear that the Committee is not in any materia particula answerable to any ‘Executive’ Committee member of the Council but the National Secretariat. And not to the already impeached Patrick-led Exco.

It is more worrisome that this so-called cut and join chairman is oblivious of the constitution he swore to defend. What do you expect of a place -holder chairman?

More importantly, since the National Secretariat has communicated with the Committee to go ahead with its mandate, the outgoing ‘Executive’ Committee has no locus standi in the matter whatsoever.

It is also an irony to note that the outgoing Chairman and Secretary could shamelessly claim that our respected former Chairman of Council, Mr AMOS DUNIA took over proceedings of the Extraordinary Congress. Both officers are obviously having selective amnesia. It’s appears they forgot how they came cap-in-hand to beg former leaders to come to their rescue. What can be farther than the truth. Whereas, members were told at the beginning of the Monday Extraordinary Congress that the Committee of elders and former Chairmen of Council, mandated MR. DUNIA to conduct the affairs of the Congress following the VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE passed on the Patrick Osadebamwen-led Executive by the Congress the preceding Saturday.

It is really shameful that an Executive that was saved from being disgraced and booted out of office can still have the temerity to openly and outrightly dish out tissues of lies to the public. What a shame!

The question to ask remains, if Patrick Osadebamwen and OCHIAKA UGWU who has indicated interest in contesting the election, now want to act and take decisions on behalf of the National Secretariat.

Members are aware of the antics and game being played to cover up shady deals perpetrated these past six years and we are watching.

We say NO to the attempt to usurp the constitutional role of the National Secretariat by Patrick Osadebamwen and OCHIAKA UGWU.

Enough is enough!