Former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume has appealed to the Federal Government to extend its joint military operations with the United States against terrorists’ hideouts in the country to the North-East region.
He made the appeal yesterday in a statement in which he commended Friday’s military attacks on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) cells in the Tangaza local government area of Sokoto State.
Recall that the United States President, Donald Trump, recently announced that the US military launched airstrikes on terrorist targets in Northwest Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, confirmed the development and declared that the United States military strikes were carried out with Nigeria’s full cooperation, approval, and intelligence support, stressing that the operation neither violated the country’s sovereignty nor targeted any religious group.
Reacting, the former Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Army, Ndume, said that extending the joint military operations to the Northeast states would go a long way in decimating the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram in the North-East region.
He said, “We welcome this cooperation between Nigeria and the United States in targeting terrorists’ hideouts. I am calling on them to extend it to the North-East, where ISWAP and Boko Haram have their three known black spots: Lake Chad, Mandara Mountain, and Sambisa, which are exclusive strongholds of ISWAP and Boko Haram.
“I also want to suggest that the military cooperation with the United States should extend to ground troops in training, intelligence and logistics. They should also back it up with attack helicopter support for ground troops”.
The federal lawmaker, who commended President Bola Tinubu for allocating the highest amount to defense in the 2026 Budget, however, demanded accountability and transparency in the utilisation of the Budget.
On the recent suicide bomb blasts in a mosque in Gamboru, Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, which left five dead and many wounded, the former Senate Chief Whip expressed his condolences to the victims and the bereaved family.
