A Nigerian army colonel has been arrested along with some junior
officers, for sabotaging the country’s military offensive against Boko
haram jihadists in the North east, confirming
Chief of Defence Staff
theory of the existence of fifth columnists within the military.
The
colonel, a muslim, who is yet to be identified, was Commanding a team
of three Armoured Personnel Carriers, APC’s, and ground troops between
Gulak and Madagali, when he committed the act of sabotage by ordering
troops to set the APCs on fire.
There was no justifiable reason
for the action as the APCs have the firing power of 1.5kilometres or
even more, and they ought to have outgunned the poorly equipped Boko
Haram terrorists approaching nearby in six Hilux vehicles.
With the APCs burnt, the officer reportedly led his men to escape into the bush.
Saturday
Vanguard, which reported this story said the Army authorities were
outraged over the development and ordered the arrest of both the
commander, the junior officers as well as the soldiers under his
command.
Military sources who spoke with the newspaper deemed the action ‘’embarrassing’’ and a setback to the military push in the area.
Until
then, the paper repoted, “the Special Forces of the Nigerian Army who
commenced the putsch to rout Boko Haram terrorists from Bazza, Michika,
Gulak and Madagali from Victim, had successfully dealt with, and
inflicted heavy casualties on the terrorists up till Gulak”.
The Colonel was said to have been informed about the approaching Boko Haram militants.
“However,
rather than blasting and taking out the terrorists in their pick-up
vans; he ordered his soldiers to jump out of the APC’s and set the
armoured tanks on fire, without realising that he was being monitored.
This was shocking because the terrorists were armed with weaponry which
were grossly inferior to the firepower of the Nigerian Army Amoured
tanks. After accomplishing the sabotage act, the Colonel and the junior
officers and soldiers ran away into the bush, claiming that they were
overpowered by a better armed group of Boko Haram terrorists,’’ Saturday
Vanguard said.
On Wednesday, Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff,
Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, said there were “fifth columnists’’ in the
armed forces leading to conflicting information emanating from the
military.
Badeh made the allegation in Abuja, while reacting to
some presentations at the start of a three-day workshop on
“Security/Media Relations in Crisis Management’’.
“If your people are misleading you, what do you do? There are too many fifth columnists.
“There
was a report which says oh, we have seen some of the Chibok girls, only
eight are missing, it was a very senior officer that gave that
information from Chibok area.
Source:PM News
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