BOKO HARAM: 'We Are Dying Like Fowl' - Nigerian Soldier

Nigerian Soldiers are reportedly no longer willing to risk their lives in the fight against the dreaded Boko Haram sects until they are provided with better and more sophisticated equipments, according to BBC reports.

 

One of the soldiers who pleaded anonymity spoke to  Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Tuesday, saying that at least  over 30 of his colleagues would ignore orders to fight the sects while saying they assembled their military vehicles along the Maiduguri-Bulabiri Road, complaining about lack of equipment to attack the Boko Haram sect.

He further said that the soldiers would only go into battle if they were provided with better equipment.

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According to the Soldier: “Our colleagues were ambushed last Monday by the sect and we have no weapons for counter-attack; soldiers are dying like fowl.
“The Nigerian Army is not ready to fight Boko Haram; soldiers were not being given enough weapons and ammunition to take them on.
“Not that we disobey them (senior commanders). Boko Haram are inside the bush, everywhere and the vehicles the soldiers were expected to use were old armoured cars that were not up to the job,” .
“There is war equipment in Maimalari barracks but the senior commanders deny us the weapons and we can’t attack Boko Haram in Alagarmo which is not more than 8 kilometres away from the barracks without weapons,” he said.
“We joined the army to defend our country, but you cannot defend it without being equipped to do so,” he said.
Meanwhile the Defence headquarters spokesman, Gen Chris Olukolade, however denied the reports while speaking on BBC’s Focus on Africa programme that he could not confirm the reports of a mutiny but would investigate.
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He fervently denied the statement that soldiers were being “sent to die” saying: “We may not have all it takes but we are improving on it (equipment) regularly,” he said.
But disclosed that they had concluded plans to buy more arms and ammunition, assuring that they would arrive in the country, even as he expressed hope that Boko Haram would soon be defeated.
Gen Chris Olukolade further warned that soldiers caught sabotaging the ongoing war against insurgents in the north-east would be seriously sanctioned. He said it was an offence for any soldier to sabotage the nation’s ongoing campaign to rid Nigeria of insurgency and terrorist elements.
He used the opportunity to also warn wives of soldiers in all the military formations in the country to desist from any form of protest against postings of their husbands to any part of the country to fight insurgents as the Nigerian Army will not hesistate to kick them out of the Barracks.
It was reported yesterday that about 30 Nigerian soldiers refused to proceed to Bama, Borno state to engage Boko Haram insurgents over fear that the sects have sophisticated weapons which could not be said of the soldiers as it was said that they were not provided with superior weapons to engage the militants.
It would be recalled last month, July that following the incessant attacks by the dreaded Boko Haram sect, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.- Gen. Kenneth Minimah revealed that some soldiers had abandoned the force due to fear of  being killed by the terrorists group Boko Haram.
Boko Haram, an Islamist group, has caused havoc in Nigeria, especially in the Northern states, through a wave of bombings, assassinations and now abductions.
The Boko Haram sects have continued to carry out their incessant attacks while killing several Nigerians soldiers, injuring many others in  fierce battles.
Last month, it was reported that the sect killed no fewer than 12 Soldiers in Borno state. While killing about 16 Soldiers in another attack on a military post in Dambao Local Government area of Borno State.