The retaking of Gwoza by terrorists is a big setback in the fight against terrorism and exposes the claim about the success being made to sweep Nigeria clean of insurgency as cap.
Gwoza, at a time, was the self- proclaimed capital of Boko Haram.
It was so proclaimed after they sacked the recognized authority, took control of the territory, hoisted their flags and imposed their laws on citizens
Apart from other atrocities they committed there, a part of the laws they imposed then was that any youth caught smoking be given dozens of hot strokes of the cane in public.
Reports emanating from there were so persistent and embarrassing that then President, Goodluck Jonathan had to ask, ‘where is this Gwoza sef?’
It’s unfortunate that over a decade after they have been expelled from there, the insurgents have come back to reclaim the place killing at will and imposing their authority on citizens.
Gwoza used to host the only Mobile police training facility in Nigeria because of the hilly terrain and the temperate weather. It was a tourist site with undulating rock formations.
But the facility has been abandoned since the insurgents sacked the trainees and never has the town been put in the same sentence with the word tourism again.
What the return of the insurgents to their once proclaimed capital symbolizes is that they’re back in control.
They’re even boasting that they’ll celebrate the Eid there .
If something is not done urgently, it will send signals to all the terrorist groups that the potential for reclaiming lost territories are there.
Don’t forget that in their hey days, Boko Haram alone occupied no less than 14 LGs spread across Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
That was before bandits discovered gold mines in the Northwest and hunting grounds in the Northcentral.
Jonathan was able to degrade their capacity in the days preceding the 2015 elections using mercenaries.
Buhari was said to have reversed the use of mercenaries but with Buratai, was able to capture the flag and Quran of the insurgents while sacking them from their strongholds especially in Gwoza to far removed border communities.
The message from the insurgents that they’ve retaken Ngoshe and by extension Gwoza is a serious threat that must not be allowed to linger even for a day.
