FG Issues Terror Alert… Says Boko Haram Plans Mass Abductions Of Students, Foreigners

The Federal Government warned on Friday that Boko Haram terrorists, who have been beaten and put on the run by the military, are planning another sensational abduction of pupils/students or foreigners in a desperate effort to raise funds, through ransom, for food, medical and arms supply.

In a statement issued in Abuja, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the planned abduction is in line with the terrorists’ new modus operandi of focusing on soft targets, having been routed from their stronghold and their capacity to stage spectacular attacks substantially degraded.

He said while the largely defeated terrorists have now concentrated their attacks on soft targets, like motor parks, schools and entertainment centres, they have been decimated to a level that they are now incapable of staging spectacular attacks like they used to do.

”The kidnap of the Chibok girls in 2014, which attracted global attention to the terrorist group, is what it is now trying to repeat, hoping it can find vulnerable targets, especially schools, or a group of foreigners outside the frontline states.

”The plan by Boko Haram is also part of an overall strategy by the terrorists to seek to negatively impact on the psyche of the gallant troops who have routed them (terrorists) from their stronghold and also give the impression that they have not been largely defeated by the December 2015 deadline given by this Administration to effectively degrade the insurgency in the North-east.

”This is why we have decided to issue this alert to enable the authorities of both public primary and secondary schools in remote locations, particular in the Northern states, to upgrade security arrangements.

”It is also aimed at alerting the general public, operators of hotels and entertainment centres, motor parks and similar facilities to also upgrade their security arrangements for the holidays,” the Minister said.

He assured that the Federal Government will build on the successes recorded by the military, which has largely met the deadline to degrade the capability of Boko Haram.

”Smoked out of their hideouts and badly bruised by our gallant military, the Boko Haram terrorists are desperate, especially in the face of the depletion of their food supplies. In their desperation, they will not hesitate to embark on actions they feel can still make them relevant or enhance their survival. But the military is ready and able to prevent that,” the Minister said.

Meanwhile, the Minister has underscored the commitment of the present administration towards exploiting the full potentials of the tourism sector as part of the efforts to diversify the economy.

The Minister, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mrs. Ayotunde Adesugba, said at a workshop on ‘Mainstreaming Tourism into the Economic Agenda of Government’ in Abuja on Thursday that oil revenue could no longer provide resources to meet the growing and competing demands of the nation, hence the need to explore tourism as catalyst for economic growth and job creation.

“The experience of the past three decades clearly highlights the shortcomings of a development strategy that places premium on foreign exchange earnings from non-renewable natural resources, especially oil and solid minerals

”The economic and social dislocation that has been the country’s experience from the 1970s right from the first decade of the country had its origin in the collapse of the international oil market. Our experience in the recent past also clearly demonstrates that oil and mineral resources are non-renewable and have very limited potentials for addressing the development challenges that face the country today over the medium and long-term period,” the Minister said.

Alhaji Mohammed expressed the conviction that the nation’s diverse and unique cultural heritage, the flora and fauna as well as the historical sites that abound in the country are capable of driving tourism to create a sustainable economy that provides jobs and income for the nation.

“The uniqueness of tourism as an important economic sector is evident in its ability to employ the skilled, semi-skilled and the unskilled manpower, while its resilience is proven by the fact that despite wars, political turmoil, natural disasters, medical scares, terrorists attacks and economic and energy crises in various parts of the world, international trade in tourism services has grown spectacularly since the 1980s.

“Today, as the nation grapples with the daunting challenges of re-strategizing the gains of our democracy and also occupying its pride of place in the comity of nations, tourism has been identified as a veritable option for sustainable development,” he remarked.

The Minister, who restated the Federal Government’s determination to create a more conducive environment for tourism to thrive in Nigeria, highlighted areas of improvement to include infrastructural development, curbing youth restiveness, which scares away tourists, enactment of a sustainable institutional framework for Public-Private Partnership and the establishment of a national carrier to fly the nation’s flag.

He also advocated the establishment of a Tourism Development Fund to serve as an incentive to encourage private sector participation in tourism development.