‘Take out the oxygen, they will die’: Defence Minister explains anti-terror strategy

The Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (retd.), has revealed that Nigerian security forces can rescue kidnapped victims without engaging their captors in gun battles or paying ransom.

Musa explained that troops often rely on strategic manoeuvres designed to isolate terrorists and cut off the supplies that enable them to keep their operations going.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, the minister said the approach had proved effective in several operations, including recent rescue missions in Kwara State and other parts of northern Nigeria.

According to him, terrorists are usually unwilling to risk their lives when confronted by security forces. Once troops identify a hideout and seal off possible escape routes, the captors may abandon their victims and flee.

“Sometimes if you carry out manoeuvres. The funny thing is, the terrorists too don’t want to die. I hope you know that. All this one they’re doing carrying weapons, they don’t want to die. So once there’s anything, even if it’s a drone that comes, you see them scatter away and leave everybody. That’s what happens,” he said.

Musa said the military’s strategy was also aimed at denying terrorists access to essential supplies such as food, water and fuel.

He explained: “So what we normally do is once we’re able to identify where they are, we block avenues for them. Like I said, take out the oxygen, they will die. So those are the aspects, and that’s why as long as people go to support to sneak in, give them fuel, give them water, give them food, give them all this, these are the things that are making them thrive. Once they don’t have that, they can’t survive.”

The minister’s comments come amid growing questions over how troops have managed to free kidnapped victims in some operations without killing or apprehending the terrorists responsible for their abduction.

Musa also disclosed that ransom payments could provide security agencies with opportunities to trace criminal networks and identify those behind kidnapping operations.

He said the Central Bank of Nigeria was working to monitor financial transactions connected to criminal activities.

“I’m happy that the CBN too is living up to expectation, trying to make sure that even if we were able to trace monies that are coming in from those other areas, we can track back where they are,” he said.

The defence minister further raised concerns about the distribution of motorcycles as government palliatives and constituency projects, warning that some of the vehicles could eventually be acquired by terrorists.

According to him, motorcycles give terrorists the mobility to move quickly into communities and escape security forces.

“We try to appeal to even governors to stop selling motorcycle—giving motorcycles out as palliatives. Because these motorcycles are the same ones that still end up to with this… with these terrorists into using. Even if you have to give, don’t give them the big capacity motorcycles, give them the small capacity ones that they will not be… won’t be able to use to run around, because that gives them leverage. They can easily enter and then disappear,” he said.

Musa alleged that motorcycles distributed through constituency projects and palliative programmes could also end up in the hands of bandits, inadvertently strengthening their capacity to operate across difficult terrain.