{"id":153927,"date":"2025-03-04T17:01:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T16:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/how-we-reclaimed-lost-territories-from-boko-haram-buratai"},"modified":"2025-03-10T22:55:55","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T21:55:55","slug":"how-we-reclaimed-lost-territories-from-boko-haram-buratai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-reclaimed-lost-territories-from-boko-haram-buratai","title":{"rendered":"How we reclaimed lost territories from Boko Haram \u2013 Buratai"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (Rtd.), has opened up about his tenure in the fight against insurgency, defending his leadership while acknowledging lingering challenges in Nigeria\u2019s security landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Arise News on Tuesday, Buratai addressed critical issues ranging from intelligence gathering to allegations of mismanaged military funds, while also highlighting key achievements under his command.<\/p>\n<p>Buratai, who served as Nigeria\u2019s Army Chief from 2015 to 2021, affirmed that significant progress was made in reclaiming lost territories from Boko Haram and strengthening the Nigerian Army.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, \u201cBefore 2015, Boko Haram had defined a territory of roughly 120,000 square kilometers. They had cut off several parts of the North-East, including Michika, Madagali, and the borders with Chad and Cameroon. By the time I left office, we had reclaimed all of these.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under his leadership, Buratai stated that the Nigerian Army successfully cleared insurgents from multiple local government areas in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States, restoring governance in places that were previously under terrorist control.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the military also reopened major highways that had been inaccessible for years due to Boko Haram attacks, such as the Maiduguri-Bama road and the Damaturu-Maiduguri highway.<\/p>\n<p>Buratai emphasized that a major focus of his strategy was intelligence-led operations, particularly between 2019 and 2020, stressing that they had a strategy to track insurgents\u2019 logistics, from arms suppliers to food and fuel distributors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf intelligence operations had continued at the same intensity, more progress would have been made,\u201d he assured.<\/p>\n<p>Buratai clarified that the military\u2019s use of intelligence to identify terrorist financiers falls under agencies like the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).<\/p>\n<p>He acknowledged the synergy between the army and the NFIU but stated that financial tracking of terrorist sponsors is primarily a task for civilian intelligence and law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n<p>On the acquisition of modern equipment under his leadership, he explained that the Army procured new armored vehicles, artillery systems, and combat drones to enhance operational effectiveness.<\/p>\n<p>He pointed out that several military barracks and training facilities were rehabilitated, improving the welfare of soldiers, while the Army University Biu was also established to strengthen research and professional military education.<\/p>\n<p>Buratai also encouraged indigenous defense manufacturing, leading to the production of mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles and small arms in collaboration with local defense firms.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to controversies surrounding alleged mismanagement of funds meant for arms procurement, Buratai dismissed these claims as \u201cfalse and malicious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He explained that there was no single fund given to him directly but that every budgetary release was properly accounted for.<\/p>\n<p>He stated that the $1 billion security fund that has been the subject of speculation was handled by the Ministry of Defence, not the Army.<\/p>\n<p>He further revealed that all military procurement and spending were duly reported to appropriate authorities and that records exist to verify the legitimacy of transactions.<\/p>\n<p>He challenged critics to conduct proper investigations rather than rely on \u201cpolitically motivated\u201d narratives.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (Rtd.), has opened up about his tenure in the fight against insurgency, defending his leadership while acknowledging lingering challenges in Nigeria\u2019s security landscape. Speaking on Arise News on Tuesday, Buratai addressed critical issues ranging from intelligence gathering to allegations of mismanaged military funds, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":153926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29,14],"tags":[45,513,254],"class_list":["post-153927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-boko-haram","tag-buratai","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How we reclaimed lost territories from Boko Haram \u2013 Buratai - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. 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