Nigeria’s military denies Boko Haram’s 'caliphate' claim

Abubakar Shekau, leader of Nigeria’s Islamist group Boko Haram said in a video they now control Gwoza, a city in northeastern Nigeria. The Nigerian military dispute the claim by the insurgents.

According to Nigerian military officials, "The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Nigerian state is still intact." Local newspaper 'This Day' quoted Major-General Chris Olukolade as saying the claim by Boko Haram that they now control Gwoza, was "false and empty." However, security sources and some witnesses said police and the military were being pushed out of Gwoza by Boko Haram fighters.

Nigerian Soldiers Mutiny, Refuse To Fight Boko Haram Claiming They Are Ill Equipped

A group of government soldiers based in northeastern Nigeria have refused to fight Boko Haram militants until they receive better equipment, according to reports. Fighters from the extremist Islamist group have been reported to be far better equipped than the Nigerian army soldiers sent to fight them.

At least 40 Nigerian soldiers are reported to have mutinied against orders to fight the militants who have forced a state of emergency in three northeastern states since last year and are fighting to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria, the BBC reported. The militant group has stepped up its attacks, targeting towns and villages across the region in deadly raids after being pushed out of its bases in Maiduguri, the capital of

FG assures Military of commitment to improve on welfare

The Federal Government is committed to improving the welfare of military personnel, the Presidential Committee on Barracks Rehabilitation, has said.

The Chairman of the committee, Mrs Binta Muazu, stated this in Ibadan on Wednesday while inspecting some buildings rehabilitated by the committee at the Letmauck Cantonment, Mokola.

Nigerian soldiers revolt over lack of weapons

Dozens of Nigerian soldiers have refused to deploy for an offensive against Boko Haram Islamists until they receive better weapons, several of the mutineers told AFP on Wednesday.
The troops said they had been ordered to move out of their barracks in the northeastern city of Maiduguri towards the Gwoza area of Borno state, where the insurgents have reportedly seized pockets of territory.
But one of the soldiers, who asked not to be named, said: “We have vowed not to move one inch until our

We Are Being Careful For The Safety Of Chibok Girls – DHQ

The director of information, Defence Headquarters, Major General Chris Olukolade speaks to our Defence Correspondent, BAYO OLADEJI, on the efforts being made by the military to rescue the schoolgirls alive.

Since the abduction of those innocent students of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, some 100 days ago, what efforts are being made to bring them back alive?

The entire military establishment and security agencies, as you are aware, are so concerned about these girls; like all Nigerians, we have a stake in the situation; aside from being concerned professionally, we are also emotionally concerned as parents. Our plan is to have these girls back. The priority of this mission is that we have them back alive and well, and all hands are on deck to ensure their safety.

Fear Of Boko Haram: Soldiers Deserting Force – Army chief

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.- Gen. Kenneth Minimah has revealed that some army personnel have abandoned the force due to the fear of the terrorists group Boko Haram.

Minimah, who gave the warning during a working tour of Lagos and its environs yesterday, condemned the actions of some soldiers who deserted the Force for fear of engaging in battle against the terrorist group Boko Haram.

Minimah said such actions by the soldiers vividly showed that they joined the force for the wrong reasons.

“Sometimes, journalists ask me questions, saying soldiers are deserting their jobs because they don’t want to be killed in the North East. I tell them yes, it is true. Desertion is part of war. A real soldier is known when he is put in the warfront. The one who is not a soldier would run away and abandon his job. Our soldiers are recruited from the Nigerian society and, today, most people are not called to be soldiers, they joined because they are desperately in need of jobs.

“ As long as there is war, there would continue to be desertion and there would continue to be recruitment. Since Alexander The Great, soldiers have been deserting. In the Second World War, there was desertion and even in the Nigeria Civil War, people deserted. It is only in peacetime that you don’t see people deserting. But those who volunteer to fight and defend their nation do not desert; they fight until there is victory.”

Lt.-Gen. Minimah also warned soldiers resident in Lagos to obey the laws of the state and be of good behaviour.

He said: “As a disciplined institution (Army) we have an image to protect. I would admonish you to be of good conduct whether in uniform or not. Conduct yourselves very well. Do not be involved in any questionable movement.

“Respect the rule of law. Respect the laws of Lagos. Lagos State has laws that are made by legislators, you must respect those laws. I am also talking about the BRT lanes. Try and ensure that you don’t use the BRT lanes. The essence of BRT lanes is to encourage the use of public transportation by car owners so as to reduce traffic on our roads.

“The other time a soldier was mistakenly killed and hoodlums took advantage of the incident to attack buses. I want to say that it was not the army who destroyed those buses.”

Meanwhile, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola yesterday urged the Lt.-Gen Minimah lay off bad eggs in the Nigerian Army who are tainting the nation’s military institution.

Fashola who said this when the Lt. General Minimah paid him a courtesy visit at the Lagos House, Marina noted that like other institutions in the country, there are bad eggs in the Nigerian Army and everything must be done to purge them out.

“Nigerian Army has done very well for Nigeria as a body but like every institution, there are bad eggs within the institution. They are in the minority and we must continue to do everything possible to show them up for who they are,” he said.

The governor who acknowledged the efforts of the military in sustaining the country’s democracy, noted that the military owes it a duty to refrain from anything that can undermine the nation’s democracy whether in conduct or deed.

“I think that it is important to reinforce the role that military across the world have played in democracy. While society moved on, as we have done, the military owes it an obligation to do everything that is possible to sustain its democracy and to refrain from anything that undermines it whether in the mind of the people or as a matter of fact. In essence, the military must become like Caesar’s wife avoid suspicion in conduct and in deeds,” he added.

Earlier, Lt. General Minimah had said he delayed his familiarization tour for six months as a result of the exigencies of work.

According to him, “When I assumed office, the exigencies of operation did not allow me to commence my familiarization tour of the formations. Six months later, I have decided to commence my familiarization tour from the 81 division which covers Lagos and Ogun state.”

Nigeria’s military chaos plays into Islamists’ hands

A screengrab taken on Monday from a video obtained by news agency AFP shows a man claiming to be Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram. Picture: AFP

WHEN Islamist militants raided the northeastern Nigerian village of Izghe, killing 90 people, some government troops dropped their weapons, stripped off uniforms and fled in civilian clothes, said two soldiers at the scene. The soldiers said the troops were angry their monthly pay had been cut in half to 15,000 naira ($92) without explanation, heightening their belief that money meant for them and their frontline fight against Islamist militant group Boko Haram was being siphoned off by officials in Abuja. "Somebody is sitting comfortably in Abuja stealing our money, and we are here facing Boko Haram fire every day," Shu’aibu, a lance corporal, said in Yola, capital of Adamawa state. He spoke on condition that his surname was not published because he was not authorised to comment. Corruption among senior officers is weakening the army’s ability to defeat Boko Haram, which kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in April, said James, a sergeant who was at the Izghe attack in February and spoke on condition that his last name wasn’t published. The Nigerian budget allocates about $6bn a year for defence and security. "Nigeria’s military budget is opaque, and only aggregate numbers are presented to the public, meaning that we don’t know how the budget is spent," Mark Pyman of Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International said. "The link between conflict and corruption is clear: Where funds are lost through corruption, soldiers don’t get the equipment and material they need." Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant-General Kenneth Minimah said desertion is part of any conflict. "There’s a high level of unemployment on the ground, most people want jobs, and if that job is to join the army, fine, it’s a source of employment. But when the reality of military service comes, he drops his rifle and runs away." Nigerian Defence Ministry spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade said that the troops’ pay had to be cut temporarily because of a delay in the release of funds by the Finance Ministry, and they would receive their full salaries. While the Nigerian military has heavy conventional weaponry such as tanks, the security forces have been slow to adapt to the challenges of Boko Haram’s guerrilla tactics, said Nnamdi Obasi, West Africa analyst of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state, the birthplace of Boko Haram, said in February that the Islamist group is better armed and motivated than government troops. The Nigeria Labour Congress, the umbrella trade union federation, and human rights activists including lawyer Femi Falana have led calls for a probe of how the military budget is spent. Boko Haram drew global outrage with its April 14 abduction of 276 schoolgirls from their dormitories in the northeastern town of Chibok. The US, UK and France have joined an international effort to find and rescue the girls. The group’s five-year-old insurgency to impose Islamic law on Africa’s top oil-producing nation has killed thousands of people and forced almost half a million to flee their homes last year, said the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Three bomb attacks in Abuja this year have claimed at least 120 lives. Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, a UK-born former Nigerian military intelligence officer who is suspected to have masterminded one of the attacks, was extradited to Nigeria yesterday from Sudan, police said. "Boko Haram is effectively waging war on the people of northeastern Nigeria at a staggering human cost," said Corinne Dufka, West Africa director at New York-based Human Rights Watch. Boko Haram killed at least 2,053 civilians in about 95 attacks in the first six months of the year, Human Rights Watch said. In some areas Nigerian security forces have been accused of receiving bribes from Boko Haram and cooperating in the group’s attacks, said Mr Pyman. On June 1 the mainly Christian village of Attagara, near the border with Cameroon, beat back an attack by suspected Islamist militants, killing 37 of them, said Pogu Bitrus, a church minister and chairman of Kibaku Elders Association, representing the main ethnic group in Chibok and the Gwoza region. When villagers learned that the militants were preparing a reprisal attack, they went to the nearby military base at Pulka to report what they had learned and were promised protection, he said. "The next day people dressed like soldiers came in nine armoured vehicles with Nigerian army marks and called on the people to come and discuss the security situation," Mr Bitrus said. "And when they came they opened fire on them, killing at least 250 men, women and children." Mr Bitrus alleged that some military units withdrew from bases in the region so Boko Haram fighters could loot weapons used to attack Attagara. "The military has tanks, has artillery, and they have never been used against Boko Haram," he said. "Instead, they’re sending out soldiers in pick-up trucks to confront them." With troops currently deployed on security duties in 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states, the 130,000-strong army is "over-stretched", said Mr Obasi. "It’s very difficult to deploy small numbers without having a means to resupply them, risking having them isolated and cut off," Mr Obasi said. Since the abduction of the schoolgirls from Chibok, at least 538 people have been killed in attacks on 18 mainly Christian communities bordering the Sambisa forest hideout of the militants in the Gwoza district of the northeast, according to a toll kept by the Kibaku Elders Association. Many communities besieged by the militants have turned to local vigilantes for their defence. "There isn’t enough fight against Boko Haram," said Mr Bitrus. "The local vigilantes should be armed to defend themselves. Unless something is done, we’re heading to anarchy."