- Military blames sabotage in run up to elections
By Senator Iroegbu
It has emerged that despite the presence of over 1,000 well armed Nigerian troops in Mubi and its environs in Adamawa State, it took just a handful of 30 Boko Haram insurgents to capture the commercial city last October without firing a shot.
The development, THISDAY learnt, forms the fulcrum of the series of ongoing investigations and court martials by the military high command, which has blamed the capture of Mubi and other towns in Adamawa and Borno States on sabotage by sympathetic …..troops and some of their commanders who refused to fight the insurgents.
Military sources, who opened up on what transpired in several of the attacks by Boko Haram in the two states between September and October this year, revealed that the insurgents would not have succeeded had the troops who were deployed in several of the towns and villages that were overrun by the insurgents, defended the areas diligently.
“Those soldiers refused to fight, despite being better armed than the insurgents and instead ran away when only 30 insurgents invaded Mubi and its environs and captured the area without firing a shot. Instead of telling the truth they lie on social media and politicians lie on their behalf that the federal government is not arming them to fight Boko Haram.
“When Mubi was deserted, more insurgents followed suit and raided several establishments, especially banks in the town. In the Diamond Bank branch alone, they carted away over N100 million.
“The terrorists also invaded deserted military formations in Mubi and Bama (Borno State) where they stole arms and armoured tanks that they could not even operate. As such, they have been soliciting for the assistance of retired army personnel to help them to operate the tanks,” a military source informed THISDAY.
“Once we deployed more … with civilian vigilante groups and local hunters in Adamawa, which enabled us to flush out the insurgents within a short period from Mubi and its environs.
*Edited for bigotry, political propaganda