By John Ogunsemore
Senior Fellow of the Extremism Policy Unit at Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Bulama Bukarti, said the terror group, Boko Haram has resorted to spreading its extremist ideology through active participation on social media.
The security analyst, who has researched the terror group for years, raised the alarm as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
Recall that Senator Ali Ndume (APC – Borno South) recently stated that the terror group killed 100 soldiers and 280 civilians in the state in six months.
Bukarti said Boko Haram’s members have taken to social media, particularly TikTok, to propagate their agenda and even host live programmes.
“Right now, when you go on TikTok, you will see Boko Haram members’ accounts. They host live programmes and live shows where they propagate Boko Haram’s ideology; They justify the group’s violence, which they do in the Hausa language. They field questions from the audience and answer comments that are written.
“Even this week, there was a Boko Haram member who posted a 10-minute video on TikTok attacking me for speaking up against the escalating violence of the group. But it’s not just that. We know that Boko Haram now operates unmanned drones. They surveil military formations in the northeast with unmanned drones.
“What we have seen over the past three months was over seven Boko Haram attacks on super camps, on Nigerian military super camps. In Sabon Gari and lots of other places, they overran the camps. They dispersed the military, killed some, captured others and stole weapons, food, medicine and other equipment from those areas and fled into the bush,” he said.