President Muhammadu Buhari said on Saturday that there was no credible intelligence linking Boko Haram’s source of weaponry to the Islamic State.
Boko Haram had last year pledged edged allegiance to IS, the group based in Iraq and Syria but which has carried out terror attacks in several parts of the world.
While fielding questions from journalists at the closing of the second Regional Security Summit in Abuja, Mr. Buhari said the claim that Boko Haram was getting its arms and ammunition from IS remained unsubstantiated.
He said a major source of the group’s sophisticated weaponry was from the various military and police bases attacked at the peak of the insurgency in the affected countries.
“The type of weapons they are using, I believe were the ones taken from military bases they attacked at the peak of the insurgency especially in Nigeria,” the Nigerian leader said.
“If you recall they attacked military bases and carted away weapons, they attacked police stations and broke into their armouries, that was how they got the kind of weapons they have been using to fight.
“Frankly, up till now we don’t have firm intelligence of what IS has been able to send to Boko Haram in terms of weapons or even money.
“But the fact that they said they are affiliated to IS has made many people to believe that they were getting weapons from ISIS,” he said.
Credit: PremiumTimes
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