Cut Off Food and Fuel Supply from Boko Haram – Ex Military Men to FG

Former senior military officers including former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon have asked President Goodluck Jonathan to declare total war on Boko Haram, by cutting off food and fuel supplies to the insurgents to weaken their strength.

According to a retired Colonel in the Nigerian Army, Paul Ogbebor, while speaking with Punch said:

“There are many types of war. We have insurgency and the operational mode is internal security operations; that is what we have been doing. There is the guerrilla warfare, which the terrorists are using; they hit and melt away.
“We also have the conventional warfare, which the President and Commander-in-Chief must declare and determine the mode. It could be a police action, which is the lowest level of warfare. He could say he is fighting a war of invasion on enemies encroaching on our territory. That is the type of war we should be fighting now to uproot the enemy.”

And Gowon haf this to say:

“We are not fighting the people; we are fighting these insurgent groups. Just like during the civil war, I did not fight all the Igbo people, I only fought those who took up arms against the authorities. There was the order that whatever you do, you should not harm the ordinary people: women, children and old people. It is only those who took up arms against you. That is really the meaning of all-out war — not against the people.
“If the people are backing them (Boko Haram), then they have to contend with the fury of government to restore law and order. I think this is the way it should be understood. It is not fighting a war against the ordinary people, who, in any way, would be running away from the war.
“If anyone takes up arms against you and decides to establish what they call an Islamic state, then I think you can deal with them, because they are really trying to break the country and that must not be allowed,”

What do you think???