HOW BOKO HARAM AIDED BY MOLES IN THE MILITARY, AMBUSHED AND KILLED SOME OF NIGERIA’S FINEST SOLDIERS NEAR SAMBISA FOREST

On May 12 2014, a group of soldiers selected from the Special Operations Battalion of the Nigerian Army headquarters were asked to proceed on an operation in Bita, Borno State. The mission, according to military sources who spoke to SaharaReporters, was informed by actionable intelligence showing that Boko Haram militants had been sighted in the area.

The village of Bita had witnessed numerous attacks by Boko Haram insurgents to the point that the residents had fled since February of this year to other locations, abandoning their community to the militants.

The selected soldiers had been taken from their operational base in Mubi, Adamawa State, and made to join some soldiers from the “213” battalion from the newly created “7 Division” of the Nigerian army stationed inside Maimalari Barracks.

Sources said the soldiers deployed on the mission were only instructed to pick up their gear, without being told the location where they were headed. The secrecy around their mission was due to suspicions within the military that some soldiers working in cahoots with the militants might tip them off about the impending attack.

When the soldiers arrived in Bita, which is a short distance from the now infamous Sambisa forest where Boko Haram might be keeping close to 300 abducted schoolgirls, the insurgents had “fled,” our sources said. After combing the nooks and crannies of the village without finding any Boko Haram militants, the soldiers set the village on fire and made to leave.

To the soldiers’ surprise, a lone militant hiding in a bush at the back of one of the huts fired at them. The soldiers stormed the bush, shot and wounded the gunman, and began to interrogate him. Before he died, the wounded militant told his interrogators that Boko Haram insurgents had been informed of the military operation three days before it commenced. The information had enabled them, the militant told the stunned soldiers, to evacuate the small town.

The soldiers waited for a few hours but saw no signs of any Boko Haram retaliation. But then, a few minutes after the soldiers boarded their buses to leave, the unexpected happened. They came under heavy artillery fire that some of the soldiers said they had never been seen since the insurgency began. They fired back, but they were soon overwhelmed by the insurgents who came out in large numbers and kept firing and advancing aggressively towards the soldiers.

The battle lasted for at least two hours. By the time the smoke cleared on the battle scene, the Commanding Officer of the “213” Battalion, one Captain Akintola, and one Lieutenant Abdullahi as well as 30 soldiers had been killed in the fire fight.

The commanding officer of the Special Operations Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel B.M.G. Martins managed to survive the battle.

Several days after the battle, several soldiers were sent to the scene to retrieve the bodies of the dead soldiers. 

Our sources said about 10 bodies could still not be recovered because the Nigerian soldiers sent to retrieve the bodies were too scared to go near the Sambisa enclave of Boko Haram.

10 of the soldiers were buried in Yola, Adamawa State yesterday.

The loss of the soldiers has further deepened suspicion within the ranks of the army. Several soldiers who spoke to us wondered how the insurgents knew three days in advance about their impending arrival when they themselves did not know where they were headed.

The death of the soldiers on May 12 and the ambushed killing the next day of 70 soldiers returning from Chibok so infuriated soldiers at the Maimalari Barracks that they staged a mutiny against their commander, Major General Ahmadu Mohammed. 

There were news last week that angry soldiers fired shots at the general’s car during the burial of some of the dead soldiers. The protesting soldiers said they and their colleagues are ill-equipped and often owed allowances. The army replaced Major General Mohammed the day after the mutiny.

US TROOPS DEPLOY TO CHAD IN HUNT FOR MISSING CHIBOK GIRLS

The United States has deployed a drone and 80 troops to Chad to help with regional efforts to rescue more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in neighboring Nigeria, officials said Wednesday.

“These personnel will support the operation of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft for missions over northern Nigeria and the surrounding area,” President Barack Obama said in a letter to Congress.

“The force will remain in Chad until its support in resolving the kidnapping situation is no longer required,” he said, without mentioning the type of aircraft deployed.

A US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP the troops will oversee at least one unarmed surveillance drone to try to track those who kidnapped the Nigerian schoolgirls.

Last month, Islamist militants from the Boko Haram extremist group seized more than 200 Nigerian girls from school dormitories in the northeastern community of Chibok, near border with Chad.

Nigerian and international authorities were slow to react but, after concerned citizens launched social media campaign and the group threatened to sell the girls into slavery, offers of help have multiplied.

France also has forces in Chad, and Britain and the United States have sent small teams of specialists to Nigeria to assist President Goodluck Jonathan’s government in the search for the girls.

Washington recently began surveillance drone flights over northeastern Nigeria to try to track down the location of the kidnapped girls.

Meanwhile, the violence has continued, with attacks on villages attributed to Boko Haram leaving scores dead and a bomb attack on the Nigerian city of Jos killing at least 118 people Tuesday.

US FLYING ‘MANNED’ MISSIONS TO TRACK DOWN NIGERIA GIRLS – (AFP)

The United States was on Monday flying “manned” missions over Nigeria to track down more than 200 abducted schoolgirls as experts pored over new video seeking clues to where they are being held.

“We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are flying manned ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) assets over Nigeria with the government’s permission,” a senior administration official said, asking not to be named.

It was not immediately clear what kinds of aircraft were being deployed, nor where they had come from.

But a new video released by the Boko Haram group purportedly showing about 130 of the girls was being carefully studied by American experts in the hope it might yield vital clues as to where they are being held.

“Our intelligence experts are combing through every detail of the video for clues that might help ongoing efforts to secure the release of the girls,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said earlier Monday.

“We have no reason to question its authenticity,” she added of the video.

In the video, the Islamic militant group’s leader Abubakar Shekau said the girls may be released once Nigeria frees all the Boko Haram prisoners it has in custody.

But that proposal has been rejected by the Nigerian government, and Psaki recalled that the US policy is also “to deny kidnappers the benefits of their criminal acts, including ransoms or concessions.”

A 30-strong US team arrived on the ground last week in Nigeria to help growing efforts to find the girls aged 16 to 18, snatched from their boarding school in the northeast of the country on April 14.

The White House said the team included five State Department officials, two strategic communications experts, a civilian security expert and a regional medical support officer.

Also on the manifest are 10 Defense Department planners already in Nigeria, seven extra military advisors from US Africa Command and four FBI officials expert in hostage negotiations.

“We are talking about helping the Nigerian government search an area that is roughly the size of New England,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said, referring to the region in the US northeast.

“So this is no small task. But we are certainly bringing resources to bear in our effort to assist the government.”

Psaki stressed the Nigerian authorities were “in the lead” during the investigation.

The girls’ plight has triggered a storm of outrage across the United States, and First Lady Michelle Obama on Saturday for the first time delivered her husband’s weekly address to the nation to say they were both “outraged and heartbroken” by the kidnapping.

“This unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group determined to keep these girls from getting an education — grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls,” she said.

 

THE CHIBOK ABDUCTION: WHEN WE ALLOW EMOTION TO TAKE CONTROL OF OUR BRAIN

 The media has been awash with the recent abduction of young secondary school girls in Borno State by a criminal gang supported by their drug induced leaders, perpetrating acts of evil on young and innocent Nigerians. One is left to wonder, whether these animals in human skin are fathered by humans or animals. Even animals have some human angle to their behaviour.

The matter is made worse by Nigerians who have become frenzied by the event and therefore felt they can use it to become popular. Opposition groups also see it as a tool to achieve political gain against the sitting president and the ruling party.

It became painful when people you expected to be more enlightened and smart, people looked upon by majority of ignorant Nigerians, joined the bandwagon, latching on the emotions of a confused and bemused people to lunch their selfish and parochial agenda which has never been for the interest of the rest of us.

Nobody seems to be asking the right questions. Nobody cares about following the normal procedure of doing things. Everybody has suddenly become a security expert with some giving the president ultimatum.  I want us to consider the things we have heard concerning this issue of the abducted girls.

Did WAEC write to the Governor concerning their security concern on the conduction of exams which lead to the abduction of the girls?

Is it true that that the Governor assured them of adequate security with one or two men at the gate.?

How come they took the girls without the matrons and some members of the teaching staff?

How many are the girls in question?

How did the ones found escaped and why were they not brought to national television to clear the doubts in some of us?

Are the parents of these students not supposed to report the matter to the police with the true identity of their children if found to be missing, including making statement at the police station?

Is it true that a woman who claimed to be a mother of one of the abducted girls was later found to be telling lies?

How come none of the villagers is able to tell us the vehicle they used and which direction they took?

How is it that the senator who claim to be in touch with happenings with the movement of the girls and their  abductors has not being able to provide us with this information before now to help us neutralize this group from their base? Could it be that he was trying to divert the focus of the security agencies from the main pursuit of the criminals?

This is the time for GEJ to stand firm and encourage some of us who still believe in him. We can be counted in our support to assist him deal with these warped minded, drug -induced criminals and their sponsors. We can do away with this outburst of emotions without the use of our thinking faculty.

ASARI WARNS BOKO HARAM, NO THREAT CAN STOP JONATHAN FROM CONTESTING SECOND TERM

EX militant Field Marshall and founder Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Asari Dokubo has warned that no amount of threat would stop President Goodluck Jonathan from running for a second term.

Asari who spoke at a programm organised by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC in Port Harcourt said Boko Haram’s killings were part of sponsored scheme to stop President Jonathan from going for a second term.

Continuing, the ex militant Field Mashall said the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC had come to stay, adding that no government can scrap it.

“They have started oo! The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau said in a video that we should not play with them. He said, Goodluck, I am coming for you. Niger Delta, we are coming for you.

Are we going to allow them to shoot the guns and throw the bombs? That is when we will dance?” “2015 is more than do or die. It is our very survival that is being challenged, and we must tell them.

You are a man and I am a man, we are going to meet at the battlefield. Be prepared, be watchful. The enemies should not be allowed”.

“In this region, there will be only one vote. The people from the North have said that they should scrap the NDDC, that they should reduce the 13 per cent derivation to five per cent, and that nobody owns oil”.  “We have to gather again and tell them (North) that they cannot dare it.

The North cannot scrap the NDDC. The North cannot reduce the 13 per cent derivation to five per cent. If they try it now, they will see. It is because our brother is the president that is why we are hanging on peacefully”. He further charged political office holders in the region to create empowerment programmes for youths in the area, stressing that they should take steps to reduce poverty in the region.

“If we beg to pay our rents and our children’s school fees, then what is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of life if I stand at the gate of NDDC and beg anybody that comes in and goes out with money? Why would we allow our people to become beggars in the midst of plenty?”

“Whether you do the right thing or not, we will fight until victory comes. You (the managing director of NDDC) never sent us. Nobody sent us. When we decided to fight, we did not know you. You never sponsored us. We fought because we believe that suffering will end. But if you, the beneficiaries of our blood, sweat and pains, will treat us as small children, then, what have we gained in this struggle?”

“Let us make it very clear that if we did not fight, Goodluck Jonathan would not have been president of this country. It is because we fought that he became president. It is insulting to give us water hyacinth contract. I have the capacity to construct the road to Bonny. Today, vehicles have started going to Nembe, and that is a miracle”.  

Speaking at the event, Managing Director of the NDDC, Bassey Dan-Abia, said the new management of the NDDC was working to tackle challenges of poverty in the region.