An insider in the Nigerian army has secretly revealed to investigative news platform, Premium Times, that the upper hand the Army had when former PResident Goodluck Jonathan procured equipment for them in early 2015 has been lost as a result of the failure of the present buhari-led administration to update and maintain the equipment of the Armed Forces.
This was revealed in an interview to PT, by the Army personnel who craved anonymity. According to the source, over 100 soldiers have been killed or are missing in action since September 2016 alone.
The source told PT,
The truth is that from September to November this year, we have lost so many troops that can’t even be accounted for.
Prominent amongst those lost are Maj DS Erasmus and 8 soldiers – 25 Sep 2016 due to IED / ambush along Bama – Banki road. Lt Col K Yusuf and 83 soldiers missing in action on 16 Oct 2016 when Boko Haram attacked troops location at Gashigar. Lt Col M Abu-Ali and five soldiers were killed on 4 November 2016 on their way to reinforce troops at Mallam Fatori during Boko Haram attack.
On 5 November 2016, two soldiers were killed at Kwada during Boko Haram attack on troops location. One soldier was wounded while another two were declared missing in action.
In another attack in Kangarwa on 6 November, one soldier was killed while four other soldiers were wounded in action. Thirteen Boko Haram terrorists were killed and unconfirmed number of them was wounded.
Blaming the situation on lack of equipment, the source recounted:
The major cause of casualties on troops at the moment is poor equipment state. At the moment, the equipment in the theatre are mostly worn out and almost obsolete. Provision of adequate equipment is the only answer for now. Troops confidence is a function of sound and functional equipment.
The tanks (especially Vickers MBT) in the theatre are so worn out that they often do not get to action most times troops are under attack. This is why the semi-serviceable T-72 tanks are being moved everywhere in the theatre. This explains why Lt Col Abu-Ali was almost everywhere there was threat as he commanded the T-72 tank Battalion.
The artillery Shilka guns are even the worst. Boko Haram terrorists fear the effect of Shilka guns but I still wonder why almost all Shilkas are not serviceable in the theatre.
Even more worrisome is the fact that the Nigerian Army has not procured more Shilka guns because they are Russian made and the bottleneck to buy them is not too much like those of Western countries.
The source claimed that the upper hand was achieved by the procurement of new equipment in February 2015, as well as the secondment of mercenaries by the Federal Government to fight alongside Nigerian troops.
Recall that there were mercenaries that fought with Nigerian Army troops in the first and second quarters of 2015.
Those mercenaries really assisted us and their withdrawal signalled the gradual regrouping of Boko Haram terrorists. This is because their withdrawal was sudden and not in phases.
The source said the upper hand was lost when the Buhari administration terminated their contract.
Read the full story here on PT.