The immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, has said that the military is now fighting an international criminal gang known as the Islamic State of West Africa Province, (ISWAP), insisting that Boko Haram terrorist group had since been defeated by the Nigerian military.

Buratai who was speaking with newsmen in Abuja, stated that what is currently playing out in the North-east is the metamorphosis of ISWAP, which is an attempt by a group of international criminal organizations to explore the loopholes created by the breakdown of law and order in some neighbouring countries to perpetrate criminality in the West African sub-region.

Buratai disclosed that Boko Haram had been pursued out of the northeast, adding that the current band of international criminal gangs operating under the guise of ISWAP will also be chased and hunted down.

Aside from the then army chief, there were other officials of the Buhari administration that have made claims that the group had been defeated, “technically defeated” or “decimated.”

Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed in 2019 said the military has successfully defeated Boko Haram insurgents. He said the country is now facing a fresh crisis, which is called a global insurgency.

“A faction of Boko Haram has aligned with the global terror group, ISIS, to form ISWAP, the Islamic State’s West African Province. In other words, ISIS now has a strong foothold in West Africa – with Nigeria at the forefront of the battle against them.

“With ISIS largely dislodged from Iraq and Syria, there is undoubtedly a flush of fresh fighters and weapons to ISWAP. Therefore, our military is fighting a global insurgency, without the kind of global coalition, including the United States, that battled ISIS in Syria and Iraq,” he said.