President Muhammadu Buhari’s new Chief of Army Staff, Major General Ibrahim Attahiru, was once removed as Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole over his failure to stop the Boko Haram insurgents in 2017.
In 2017, British Broadcasting Corporation had reported how the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai, had given Attahiru a 40-day ultimatum to capture Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, dead or alive.
But Attahiru’s failure to accomplish the task resulted in his removal and being left without any posting.
None of the officers appointed to succeed Attahiru have been able to capture Shekau till date.
Attahiru’s tenure as theatre commander was characterised by several failures and a spike in terrorist attacks.
In May 2017, Attahiru took over the theatre command from Major General Lucky Irabor, who is now the Chief of Defence Staff. But his tenure witnessed increased suicide bombings and attacks on military formations.
In June, barely a month after he took over, Boko Haram insurgents attacked Maiduguri, the Borno State capital and a month after, a group of geologists and technologists from the University of Maiduguri were ambushed by Boko Haram insurgents at Magumeri area of Borno state.
About 12 soldiers who escorted the academics were reportedly killed.
Also killed in the ambush were some staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on the team.
Boko Haram, using four female suicide bombers, also attacked Muna Gari, a suburb of Maiduguri, killing about 14 persons.
(First news)
