Gen Ihejirika Blames El-Rufai In Boko Haram Support...

Former Chief of Army Staff, General Onyeabo Azubuike Ihejirika, on Thursday, August 28, reacted to El-Rufai’s allegation, saying that he is not surprised to hear such things from ‘one of the Boko Haram Commanders.’

Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Nasir El-Rufai named ex Governor Modu Sheriff and Lt. Gen Azubuike Ihejirika ‘Boko Haram sponsors and kingpins’.

However, in an interview with Vanguard, Ihejirika said that Nasir El-Rufai is one of the frontline Commanders of the Boko Haram terrorist group.

According to Ihejirika, the Commanders including El-Rufai, know where the problem is.“He should stop deceiving Nigerians by trying to divert attention.”

“When the Boko Haram operation started, supporters of the sect like El-Rufai said that there was nothing like Boko Haram and that the army was just killing innocent youths.

“If you also remember, not too long ago, some of their supporters including El-Rufai said that I was re-inventing the killing of the Ibos during the Biafra war following government’s determination to rid the country of terrorism,” Ihejirika said.

Gen. Ihejirika believes that “the likes of El-Rufai started the campaign of human right abuses, in order to divert the international attention of the heinous crime being committed by the Boko Haram terrorists.”

He further recalled recent allegations against his person indicating that that he took away N48 billion – an amount of money which is still in the coffers of the Ministry of Defence, which can be verified by anybody.

“The likes of El-Rufai have been supporting Boko Haram. In fact, El-Rufai and his likes are the same group of people that ensured the army did not to get the requested equipment to deal with this menace once and for all, as they used their cohorts to tell the government that procuring modern equipment were not necessary,” former Chief of Army Staff said.

It could be recalled that some Northern political elites started the crusade for General Azubuike Ihejirika to be summoned before the International criminal Court in the Hague claiming that he killed their sons and daughters innocently. At the same time general’s record includes some significant achievements in helping Nigeria contain the rapid spread of Boko Haram insurgency.

He not only established the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army with headquarters in Maiduguri, but established new Army Brigades, Counter Terrorism Schools in Kachia and Jajias and many more.