Village set on fire
By Garba Mohammad
Earlier this week, there was despair and agony at the 23rd Armored Brigade,Yola, following reports that the dreaded sect members of Boko Haram had ambushed and killed some of the Nigeria’s finest soldiers in Bita, near the deadly Sambisa forest.
Reports reaching Newsdiaryonline.com indicate that on May 12, 2014, a group of soldiers selected from the Special Operations Battalion of the Nigerian Army headquarters were ordered to proceed on an operation in Bita, Borno State. The mission, according to military sources 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.
‘’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,’’ said impeccable sources.
Newsdiaryonline.com learnt that when the soldiers arrived in Bita, near the now infamous Sambisa forest where Boko Haram might be keeping the abducted schoolgirls, the insurgents had “fled.”
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.
Thereafter,the soldiers stormed the bush, shot and wounded the gunman, and began to interrogate him. Before he died, the wounded insurgent told his interrogators that Boko Haram insurgents had been informed of the military operation three days before it commenced.
Another military source told Newsdiaryonline.com that ‘’The information had enabled Boko Haram to prepare ahead, 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. However , 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 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 Bayedi 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,while 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.
Despair Pervades Barracks
The slain soldiers corps were evacuated to Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Yola with atmosphere of despair and agony pervading the affected families as many wore black attire during the burial ceremony of the 10 soldiers held at the Army cemetery of the 23rd Armourd Brigade .
The loss of the soldiers has further deepened suspicion within the ranks of the army. Several soldiers who spoke 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,’’ said a top military officer.
For now, Newsdiaryonline.com learnt that anxiety has enveloped the military circles as reports indicated that many senior military officers are being targeted and killed in the ongoing war against insurgency.
‘’There is wide believe that the insurgency was a contraption sponsored to deplete north population and render it economically prostrate.
‘’The recent killings of the soldiers have unfortunately added any dimension to the raging suspicion of complexity against the north as many senior military officers from northern extraction are being targeted and killed,’’ argued Major Yahya Shinku (rtd).
