Army Col, 10 officers set Nigerian tankers ablaze, pave way for Boko haram.

SABOTAGE: Army Col, 10 officers set
Nigerian tankers ablaze, pave way for
Boko Haram
There were shocking revelations at the weekend
that an Army Colonel, some junior officers and
soldiers who were taking part in the military
offensive to reclaim communities taken over by the
Boko Haram terrorists in Adamawa State, have
been arrested for sabotage.
Top military sources said that the colonel (a
Muslim) who was Commanding a team of three
Armoured Personnel Carriers, APC’s, with the
capability to fire up to a range of 1.5kilometres or
even more, had instead of pursuing the terrorists,
deliberately set the APCs on fire between Gulak and
Madagali, before running away with his team of
soldiers into the bush.
Saturday Vanguard gathered that the Army
authorities were outraged over the development
and ordered the arrest of both the commander, the
junior officers as well as the soldiers under his
command.
Narrating how the ‘’embarrassing incident
occurred,’’ a source who was privy to the
development noted that until the latest
development, the Special Forces of the Nigerian
Army who commenced the putsch to rout Boko
Haram terrorists from Bazza, Michika, Gulak and
Madagali from Vimtim, had successfully dealt with,
and inflicted heavy casualties on the terrorists up
till Gulak.
It was said that between Gulak and Madagali, the
Colonel who had all along been prided with air
surveillance reports, was again informed that Boko
Haram terrorists were approaching his team in six
Toyota Hilux Pick Up vans from the Madagali axis.
“However, rather than blasting and taking out the
terrorists in their pick-up vans; he ordered his
soldiers to jump out of the APC’s and set the
armoured tanks on fire, without realising that he
was being monitored. This was shocking because
the terrorists were armed with weaponry which
were grossly inferior to the firepower of the
Nigerian Army Amoured tanks. After accomplishing
the sabotage act, the Colonel and the junior
officers and soldiers ran away into the bush,
claiming that they were overpowered by a better
armed group of Boko Haram terrorists,’’ Saturday
Vanguard was told.
Military sources said that the action of the Colonel
and soldiers under his command had given vent to
the disclosure by the top hierarchy of the military
that there were so many fifth columnists in the
military working against the country’s
determination to flush out Boko Haram terrorists in
the land.
Consequently, Saturday Vanguard was told that a
Board of Inquiry, BoI, had been set up by the Army
authorities to investigate the Colonel and his
soldiers after which a Military Court Martial would
be set up to try them for conspiracy, treason and
willful sabotage among others.
Also speaking on the development, a senior officer
confided in Saturday Vanguard thus, “You can now
see why the Military Court Martial which is
currently sitting is inevitable. The uninformed
would feel that soldiers who are fighting the
nation’s battle are being unjustly punished. But the
truth is that many of them are sabotaging Nigeria
and making the insurgents look formidable for
reasons that cannot be explained. Some of them
appear sympathetic to the insurgents.
“How can it be explained that several APCs that
cost up to $1million each in some cases or more
will be willfully destroyed by Commissioned
Officers, COs, who swore to defend the territorial
integrity of their nation, just to help terrorists? That
is treason of the highest order.”
The source added that the new vigour and
determination with which Nigerian troops had been
prosecuting the war, resulting in the killing of
several commanders of the sect as well as
hundreds of the insurgents, was the fallout of the
new position of the military high command to deal
with those pursuing a different agenda from that of
the Federal Government.
The Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, Air Chief Marshal
Alex Badeh said last week that the death penalty
imposed on the 12 soldiers who were tried for
treason was lawful and in accordance with military
dictates. He spoke at a three-day conference
organised by the National Security Adviser in
collaboration with Trim Communication Nigeria Ltd
on Media/Security relationship in crisis
management.
According to him, “The day you join the military
you have signed off, whether life or death, and it is
obey before complaint. How can a soldier just
jump out of the APC because you want to donate
APC to Boko Haram; and somebody is there
talking about constructive mutiny.
“The laws are there, if you run away from the
enemy, you will die and that is what the military
law says. Apart from the old Nigerian law, we abide
by the military law. Nobody forces or conscripts
anybody into the military. It is a voluntary service,
and so if we have this type of challenge, you
should be able to confront it and not to run away.”...CULLED