1,773 CJTF die fighting terrorists in North-East Nigeria

No fewer than 1,773 members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) have died while fighting Boko Haram and Islamic State of the West African Province (ISWAP) terrorists in the North East Zone.

The Chairman of CJTF, Babashehu Abdulganiu, made this known on Saturday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri.

Abdulganiu said CJTF operatives paid the supreme price while fighting terrorists along with the military in their enclaves in Sambisa Forest and the Lake Chad area.

He said that some died repelling attacks on Maiduguri while others sacrificed their lives by hugging suicide bombers during attempts to attack innocent people.

Abdulganiu said the deaths were recorded between 2012 and 2022, adding that in spite of the high casualty figure, CJTF remained resolute in its determination to support the military in riding the state of terrorists.

According to him, the group which is now backed by law, started out of necessity to stamp out bad elements who usually cause havoc within Maiduguri metropolis

“It started in 2012 when our youths picked up sticks and said no more Boko Haram and we successfully pushed the terrorist group out of Maiduguri to their enclaves in Sambisa Forest and Lake Chad.

“In 2015, the Borno State Government established the Borno Youths Empowerment Scheme(BOYES), where the 23,000 Civilian Joint Task Force members were enlisted as security vanguards, trained by military and screened by the Department of State Security.

“During the screening exercises, those involved in drug abuses or criminality or those that were convicted before were screened out.

” This was to make sure that we do not recruit bad eggs into our midst.

“We adopted military like structures that were existing as Sectors.

” So we deployed our men to occupy the checkpoints from Sector 1 to Sector 10,” he said

He said that the establishment of BOYES whose members were paid monthly allowances, helped in stamping out youth restiveness and unemployment as well as reduced minor crimes in Maiduguri.

“The Borno state government is spending N150 million monthly to provide allowances of the CJTF.

” They also provided us vehicles, working tools and even light weapons,” he said.

Abdulganiu said the Borno government also recruited additional 2,700 neighbourhood watch vanguards that were trained by the Nigerian police and paid N20,000 as allowances in order to compliment efforts of the security agencies in combating crimes. NAN