The soldier who did not reveal his identity, told VON Hausa Service, that sometime ago, while serving in Bama Unit in Borno state, a commander from a nearby unit got in contact with his own commandant and asked for backup.
He said when he and the soldiers were to
meet with the soldiers from the other commandant, they discovered they
were given different uniforms and in the brink of launching the attack
on the insurgent group, the soldiers from the other unit were withdrawn
by their commandant leaving them to face the men of the Islamic sect
alone with light arms. He also claimed that some of the insurgents they
killed were officers that conducted training in military base in
Kontagora near Abuja. Continue...
"We had only light arms and our men were being picked off one after the other. We realised that some of them were actually mercenaries from the Nigerian army... hired to fight us," he said.
The unidentified soldier said that most of his colleagues are silently putting their arms down and leaving the army due to the frustrations they experienced and what he termed the politicizing of the war against the Islamic sect
"We had only light arms and our men were being picked off one after the other. We realised that some of them were actually mercenaries from the Nigerian army... hired to fight us," he said.
The unidentified soldier said that most of his colleagues are silently putting their arms down and leaving the army due to the frustrations they experienced and what he termed the politicizing of the war against the Islamic sect
""I
swear by Allah, there are soldiers who are coming out of the forest
after they were abandoned; several of them dropped their weapons and
just went home. There were more than 20 of them from this battalion in
Kwanduga. Even me that is talking to you now, I am preparing to leave. I
just want to tell the world so that they will know what is happening.
These people are doing this secretly." he said
His
claim on some military personnel being recruited by the sect group seem
to have been confirmed as some Military high command on Sunday
launched an investigation into claims of a lance corporal who was said
to be killed by the Special Forces during an encounter with insurgents
in Borno State. The Lance Corporal according to a source told Punch
that he was a trusted trainer of Special Forces at the Nigerian Army
Training Centre, Kontagora.
"A soldier who trains
Special Forces at the Nigerian Army Training Centre in Kontagora, Niger
State, was among those who were killed. The man was not among the
Special Forces; he was obviously leading the attack for the insurgents
but he got killed. It was one of the soldiers that identified him as
somebody from his unit in Kotangora. The soldier called attention to
the man's corpse and when the commander said he should be searched,
they recovered a current pass authorizing him to leave Kotangora and his
Army identity card from him".
Director of Defence
Information, Maj. Gen Chris Olukolade in response to the soldiers
claims said they were all not true and that the unidentified soldier
could be a Boko Haram sect member who was disguising as a Soldier.
"The person that granted that interview on the VOA;
we believe he is not a soldier, he could just be one of those
simulated on the other side to give some false impression to support
the insurgents." He refused to comment on the story about the
killed lance corporal who is alleged to have been working for the sect
members.
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