•It’s mixed grill as Ekpeyong, member, Senate Committee on Army, defends military
By Charles Kumolu
On Friday, November 12, troops engaged ISWAP terrorists in a fierce encounter in Askira Uba Local Government Area of Borno State.
By the time the dust of the battle settled, Commander of the Nigerian Army Special Forces operating in the area, Brig-Gen Dzarma Zirkusu, and three of his men lay dead.
Several other soldiers were injured, some critically.
The terrorists were said to have arrived the area with massive arsenal of movable weapons and high caliber equipment with which to overrun troops but troops stood their ground.
Confirming the killings, Director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, said, “In the fierce encounter, which is still raging as of the time of filling this report, troops, supported by the Air Component of OPHK, have destroyed five A – jet combat trucks, two A-29 artillery weapons, two dragon combat vehicles and nine gun trucks (belonging to the terrorists).
“Sadly, a gallant senior officer, Brigadier General Dzarma Zirkusu, and three soldiers paid the supreme sacrifice in a very rare display of gallantry as they provided reinforcement in a counter offensive against the terrorists, and successfully defended the location.
“The families of the senior officer and soldiers have been contacted.
“The Chief of the Army Staff, Lt Gen Faruk Yahaya, deeply commiserates with the families and relations of the fallen heroes.
“He has also directed that troops continue in the ferocious counter offensive and hot pursuit to eliminate the remnant of the fleeing terrorists.”
The sad incident happened barely 10 months into the tenure of the nation’s Service Chiefs.
With the exception of the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), Yahaya, who was appointed after his predecessor, Major-General Ibrahim Attahiru, died in a plane crash in July, Major-General Lucky Irabor, Chief of the Defense Staff (CDS), Rear Admiral A.Z Gambo, Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), and Air-Vice Marshal I.O Amao, Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), assumed office on January 26, 2021.
The Nov 12 incident in Askira Uba LGA was not the first time troops will be attacked and killed under the leadership of the current Service Chiefs.
In June, Commanding Officer of the COAS Mobile Intervention Battalion in Borno, Colonel Hussaini Samaila Sankara, and four soldiers were killed when their vehicle ran into an IED of Boko Haram.
Both incidents, however, are just part of several attacks carried out by terrorists and bandits across the North-East and North-West on troops and soft targets for which analysts are wondering if insecurity has been tamed under the Service Chiefs’ leadership of the Nigerian armed forces.
For instance, no fewer than 4, 227 people, according to Sunday Vanguard findings, appear to have been killed in attacks by bandits and ISWAP terrorists in the northern part of Nigeria since January.
Expectations had been high when the Service Chiefs assumed office that they were the top military chiefs Nigeria needed to better secure as the reason for the demand for their predecessors’ ouster by many Nigerians and even the National Assembly was that insecurity was getting out of hand.
President Muhammadu Buhari stood his ground by retaining the predecessors in office until they had served six years and, when they were removed, deployed them into diplomatic service.
Meanwhile insecurity in Nigeria since January when the current military chiefs took oath of office has not all been about killing of troops and civilians.
Military sources told Sunday Vanguard last week that no fewer than 3, 000 terrorists have been killed by the armed forces in air and ground attacks since the beginning of the year.
The number of bandits who fell to the fire power of the military during the period, in the meantime, could not be ascertained at press time.
In their first three months of the Service Chiefs’ tenure, a report commissioned by Sunday Vanguard in May observed that no fewer than 741 people were killed across the country by suspected Boko Haram insurgents, herdsmen, bandits and arsonists.
But as of July, a mid-year report by Washington DC-based human rights organization, Global Rights, disclosed that about 3,868 persons were killed between January and June 2021.
The group, which tracks daily incidents of violent crimes in Nigeria, also put the number of persons abducted within the timeframe at 3,016, a 79.6 percent increase compared to 615 incidents recorded within the same period in 2020.
The 3,868 represents an increase of 54.5 percent compared with 2,503 cases recorded within the same period in 2020.
The report revealed that banditry accounted for 2,423 cases, 62.64 per cent of violent killing nationwide, Boko Haram, 388 (10.03 per cent), herdsmen attacks, 289 (7.47 percent), isolated attacks, 272 (7.03 percent), cult clashes 213 (5.5 percent), communal clashes 180 (4.65 percent) and extrajudicial killings, 106 (2.74 percent).
Herdsmen
Figures obtained by Sunday Vanguard from the Council of Foreign Relations’ Nigeria Security Tracker, showed that 177 were killed in violent crimes in August.
That is in addition to about 75 terrorists neutralized by security agents within the same time frame.
Between September 11 and 17, 107 people, according to reports, lost their lives to herdsmen, Boko Haram, bandits and other actors.
Apart from 37 insurgents killed in Borno by security agents from the last week of October to November 5, no fewer than 75 deaths were reported. Overall, no fewer than 4, 227 persons, including military personnel, may have been killed across the country since the Service Chiefs took office in January.
However, these may not represent the actual number of deaths as it is believed in many quarters that killings by non-state actors in Nigeria are always underreported, especially incidents in northern Nigeria.
Interestingly, government claimed the media exaggerates incidents of instability in the country, saying insecurity is on the decline.
Making the claim in a message to mark the last Eid-ul-Maulud celebration, President Buhari said insecurity is now “declining,” stressing that it’s time for the media to “revise” reporting on security challenges.
READ ALSO: Service Chiefs, IGP storm Borno ahead of President Buhari’s visit
“The reality of declining insecurity should replace the inaccurate narrative of rising insecurity in the country,” Buhari said at that time.
But facts and figures on the ground suggest that life has become increasingly unsafe in Nigeria.
Buried
For instance, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, had, in October, said the number of people killed by criminals across the country is underreported.
“In eastern Sokoto alone, there was a day we buried 76 persons, who were killed in cold blood by criminals who came from nowhere, people didn’t hear about that one”, Abubakar said.
“There was another day we buried 48 persons in the same Sokoto, but you didn’t hear about it.
“How can people, who do these things, be unknown? Where are our intelligence agencies? Don’t we have a proactive intelligence agency that will think ahead of the bandits?”
The reality is that insurgents, bandits, kidnappers, killer herders and unknown gunmen have become more daring with high-profile attacks.
But it hasn’t been lose-lose situation as the military had, sometimes, reportedly neutralized and arrested suspected criminal elements.
This is in addition to the surrender of 17, 000 Boko Haram terrorists and their families witnessed in the same period.
According to the Nigerian Army, about 6,000 of this number are fighters.
The remaining 11,000 are made up of women, children and the elderly.
It also claimed to have killed no fewer than 3,000 insurgents during both ground offensives by troops and air bombardments by Nigeria Airforce, NAF, fighter aircraft.
Scores of bandits and Unknown Gunmen, UGM, have also been variously eliminated by security agents across the country.
Many regard the successes of the military as minimal when compared with the magnitude of insecurity in the land.
Improvement
Reacting, a member of the Senate Committee on Army, Senator Chris Ekpenyong, in a chat with Sunday Vanguard, dismissed the insinuation that current Security Chiefs are not on top of their game.
Ekpeyong said they are human beings and not spirits, adding that “there is much improvement more than the previous set.”
According to him, “they are human beings. They are not spirits. All the arms of the armed forces have defended their budget, and they complained about underfunding. “But in the face of the prevailing economic difficulties, we feel they should manage what was budgeted for them. To the best of my knowledge, they requested more funding for the purchase of arms and ammunition.
“The tempo is still high, and they are doing their best. They have not given up. I think that there is much more improvement than the previous set. They are decimating them, terrorists. We cannot say that they are not trying.”
Locals
On what security agencies should do differently, the senator said there is a need for them to work closely and cooperate with locals.
He said: “The locals have to show commitment. At least they should be bold enough to point at those who are not people of better character among them. “Most of the security agents are non-indigenes. They will not know who is a bandit or Boko Haram member.
“For instance, when the army went on assessment of an attack in one of the villages without knowing that ISWAP had already laid an ambush, the locals would have said, ‘no don’t go’.
“Instead, they packed their things and started running away. The security agencies, especially the army, had to go back to the drawing board and re-strategize.
“They have to improve on the velocity they were going before now. And they must not give up.”
Vanguard News Nigeria
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