The Nigerian Army has disclosed that Boko Haram/ISWAP terorrists are using “doctored clips” showing lavish lifestyle in order to get more fighters recruited.
Army spokesman, Onyema Nwachukwu, disclosed this in a statement on Friday.
This development comes after not less than 100 insurgents surrendered to troops within the past two weeks.
“Faced with the obvious reality of defeat and inability to carry out attacks that have hitherto been the strategy to assert relevance in the eyes of the public, Boko Haram Terrorists (BHT) have resorted to cheap propaganda in order to seek relevance. This of course, was as a result of the sustained and well-coordinated military bombardments from both Land and Air Components of Operation HADIN KAI (OPHK),”
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“This sustained operation has exerted so much pressure on the terrorists and their sympathisers, whose only available weapon now, is cheap and uncoordinated propaganda.
“In recent times, a good number of these terrorists have surrendered to troops in different locations across the theatre, a trend that indicates that they are losing the capacity to remain in the fight. Apparently, there are indications that their fighting capability has been severely encumbered by devastating depletion, with their remnants deserting various enclaves, leaving behind a few diehards that will undoubtedly be eliminated by the highly spirited troops of OPHK in no distant future.
“In a bid to replenish their fast-depleting fighting force and clandestinely conscript unsuspecting individuals to join their fold, BHT embarked on a subtle recruitment drive using the said propaganda video to portray a lavish lifestyle in their so-called fortress; a psychological strategy desperately deployed to attract impressionable youths and unsuspecting individuals.
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“A cursory look at the video revealed an amateur work of doctored old clips and images from different backgrounds, skewed with blurred imageries that are incoherent and illogical. The incontrovertible reality is that the group is facing imminent destruction and extinction. Contrary to the false impression they attempt to project, of a blissful live in their enclaves, the true situation in their evil enclave is one of hunger, disease, brutality, high level of immorality and the constant fear of military offensives.
“This is largely responsible for the terrorists’ turning in their arms in droves as the gallant troops of OPHK are rendering their enclaves uninhabitable with fierce offensives. What the terrorists did not tell their target audience is that their fighters and family members are currently surrendering to the troops in multitudes, laying down their arms and renouncing their membership of the evil organisation and that they were misled in joining in the first place.”
The spokesperson further said many of the terorrists, who recently surrendered to troops, “lamented that the condition in their enclaves have become too harsh and completely unbearable that they had no option than to give themselves up”.
