Military lacks manpower, equipment to defeat Boko Haram – Borno governor

Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, has said the Nigerian army lacks enough manpower and equipment to defeat Boko Haram insurgents, noting that the country might need about 100,000 more soldiers to win the war against the terrorist group.

The governor who stated this on Wednesday while hosting the House of Representatives’ Committee on Defence led by its chairman, Hon. Babajimi Benson, advised that at least 50,000 people from Borno should be engaged by the military with or without western education to prosecute the ongoing war on terror.

According to him, “you cannot fight this insurgency to an end without technology and without manpower and without funding.”

Zulum said, “Take my words, they (the army) don’t have the manpower, they don’t have the equipment. Kindly advise the Speaker and the Senate President to tell Mr President to approve the massive recruitment of soldiers. We need about 100,000 more to be recruited into the Nigerian Army. They should come and employ the locals whether they have western education or not.

“We need to recruit nothing less than 50,000 men from Borno, we have able-bodied men that can join the Nigerian Armed Forces on an ad-hoc basis.”

Benson had earlier informed the governor that the committee was in Maiduguri to pay a condolence visit in respect to the Auno attack.