GALLANT SOLDIERS: THEY DIED WHILE SEARCHING FOR OUR MISSING GIRLS

Col.Kabiru Salisu

Lt,Col. Nweze

Major Olalekan Akinola

Lt.Odushina Oluwafemi

Lt.Kennet Onubah

The gruesome story about how Col. Kabiru Salisu was killed by blood thirsty Boko Haram was just very annoyed. According to SaharaReportes, the gallant army Colonel was ‘on his way to his base in Gwoza while conveying some of his troops he had committed to an operation in Chirawa. He was moving in a convoy with one Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC). While the attackers were waiting to ambush, they allowed all other vehicles in the convoy to pass. As the APC approached, the member of the Boko Haram numbering about two hundred emerged from nowhere and rendered it immobile by deflating all its tyres.

When he and six other occupants alighted to take cover, the attackers killed them all. The rest of the convoy ran off to the next military station to seek assistance, but no help came because they feared that the attackers were better equipped. Truly, they are better armed. Col. Salisu’s corpse and that of six others remained in the bush until the next midday when they were retrieved, only after the army was certain the Boko Haram attackers had retreated!’’

The questions now are: 1.how did Boko Haram knew that the Armoured Personnel Carrier’s tyres were its weakness? 2. Col. Salisu had earlier led an operation on the 3rd of March where he was overpowered by the Boko Haram superior firepower and lost seventeen of his soldiers, then why did he not make a strong presentation to his ‘Oga at the top’?

Going by the statement credited to the Chief of Accounts of the Nigerian Army, Major General Abdullahi Muriana, while addressing the Nigerian Army Finance Corps Warrant Officers/ Non-Commissioned Officers training week in Jaji ,on Wednesday that Nigerian Army lacks the financial capacity to cope with the challenges posed by Boko Haram and others in the country and that “the Nigerian Army is enmeshed in the bureaucratic bottleneck in getting approval for funds needed for its operations and call for a review of the system.’ It shows clearly that the Boko Haram sects are more motivated than our soldiers.

While the Boko Haram major firearm remains the Anti-Aircraft weapon (AA) with barrels of ammunition mounted on Hilux pick-up vans, the Nigerian army fighters make do with AK-47 which has only 90 rounds of ammunition. This is just too bad on the part of Nigerian Army. Nigeria is wasting lives daily without having any idea that any place of work with so much hazards & no improvements on safety, workers get demoralized. That applies to Soldiers as well’

According to military source, there is no single Anti-Aircraft weapon (AA) nor a gunship necessary for that kind of operation that is available to the Nigerian Army to counter the insurgency. It was also learnt that 10-Anti-Aircraft weapon (AA) bought by the Yar’adua regime lie fallow in the Niger Delta while the Army gunship is made an exclusive security apparatus to the President!

Moreover, it was learnt that the design of the Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) was by a member of the Nigerian army, modeled after an American type. However, it was poorly designed that it had a history of frequent tyre bursts. In fact, Col. Salisu had ordered for better tyres before he died.

Going by the words an expert in military hardware, 'APCs are suppose to have ''Run Flat tyres'' but you know in Nigeria they mess around with standards. Besides, that also indicates two things; they went into operation without proper Infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) & Air Assets. If they had a helicopter Gunship nearby, those 200 Boko Haram would have been minced meats. Anyway, the Nigerian Army is learning lessons from years of neglect & ill preparation.'

Soldiers on the frontline say they are fighting a losing battle. Most wish the situation was reversed where the sect is the Nigerian Army and vice versa.

As one of my big sister Vickie Owoduni, wrote on her facebook page  that a friend of her who is from Yemen, also a practicing and faithful  Muslim told her that : ‘‘don't make the mistake of calling those people (Boko Haram)Muslims because they're not. In my country(Yemen) we kill them like dogs just the way they kill innocent people. You people in Nigeria should slaughter them like dogs too, because that's what they are. There is absolutely no place in the Quaran which tells them to do what they're doing. They're not part of us. Please don't ever call them Muslims"

With this above statements, i believe that all those people that perpetrated in this evil that led to the untimely death of our officers namely:Col.Kabiru Salizu,Lt.Col.Nweze, Major Olalekan Akinola, Lt.Kennet.Lt.Odushina olufemi and their soldiers need to be arrested and face the law of the land.