Opinion: Let The Hunters Hunt Down Boko Haram!

The request by hunters in Borno state to be allowed by the military authorities to join in the war against insurgents in Sambisa forest may ordinarily be considered a suicidal mission on the part of the hunters, as it concerns the fact that the hunters are not evenly matched weapon-wise against Boko Haram terrorists.
However, allowing the hunters get into the thick of the battle against the insurgents may boost the fight and enable the conventional troops regain the remaining ground lost to the insurgents since the unconventional war, also described as asymmetrical war by security experts, began in 2009.
Malam Mai-Gana Mai-Durma, the Borno Emir of the Hunters, had made the appeal to the military authorities in Maiduguri while addressing newsmen recently. He said the call became necessary because the hunters were familiar with the terrain at the Sambisa forest which is the operational base of the terrorists.
Their request echoes the involvement of Civilian Joint Task Force in assisting Nigeria’s military to rout the terrorists in the North East. If the military could allow the Civilian JTF join the fight, with the attendant exploits they have done so far, why not give the patriotic hunters the same chance to hunt down the terrorists? The fact that the hunters know the terrain very well will help in taking the fight to the terrorists right in their enclave. The large number of the hunters from the 27 local government areas of Borno state which Durma said had been rendered idle by the Boko Haram terrorism, if deployed could make significant impact in the final push against the insurgents. It takes courage for hunters who cannot match the sophisticated weapons used by Boko Haram to seek to engage them inside the forest.
It was the same courage and patriotic zeal that drove a group of barely armed youths in Borno State to join the fight against the insurgents. When the Civilian JTF began their operations some years ago with bare hands and clubs against Boko Haram that had armoured tanks and other war arsenals such as rocket launchers, machine guns and AK47 rifles, many feared that they were on a suicidal mission. Indeed some of them have lost their lives in the course of this fight. But they helped in no small way in blunting the impact of the rampaging militants in Maiduguri. At a time, the youths arrested more than 30 suspected members of Boko Haram in one week alone and handed them over to security forces. Even when some military men refused to fight because of lack of weapons, the Civilian JTF kept on staking their lives by fighting the terrorists.
The youths were said to have joined the fray after over 13 people including women and children were killed by Boko Haram at Hausari Ward in June 2013. Hausari was said to be a notorious Boko Haram hideout before the Civilian JTF and Nigerian troops routed the insurgents. When the youths started the manhunt for the terrorists, Abubakar Maulum, a leader of the group in his early 20s, told reporters they were spurred to engage the terrorists by the courage displayed by a group of youths at Hausari, saying he was determined to sacrifice his life to ensure sanity returned to the state. “We are tired of them and we want to put an end to it. Since soldiers don’t really know who the Boko Haram members are, we who live with them and know them very well resolved we have no option than to help fish them out,” he said.
Taking up people who are ready to blow themselves up along with others while fighting a cause they believe in is quite a daunting task. The hunters who are begging the military authorities to be allowed to join the fight should be allowed to do so after a careful consideration. Since they claim to know the terrain very well, they should be given the necessary encouragement just like the Civilian JTF. Their collaboration with the military could result in the long awaited rescue of the Chibok girls who have been in Boko Haram’s captivity since April 2014. The war against the insurgents may have been won technically, according to the Federal Government, but until the Chibok girls are rescued and the attacks on soft targets abate substantially, Nigerians will remain skeptical and may not join in singing the victory song just yet.
At this stage of the war, no effort should be spared in enlisting the support of the people, nonetheless the willing hunters, in the war ravaged communities in the northeast states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, to decimate the remnants of the terrorists now attacking soft targets. Apart from engaging in direct combat, the hunters could be deployed for intelligence gathering in Sambisa forest. Allowing the hunters join the battle won’t take anything away from the gallant efforts of the nation’s military and the supreme sacrifice they have made since 2009 when the insurgency began.