Boko Haram ambushes soldiers in Kogi

About 850 soldiers shortlisted for a counter-terrorism course at the Nigerian Army Training Centre in Kontagora, Niger State narrowly eluded death when they were ambuscaded by suspected members of the outlawed Boko Haram islamist sect.

Four of them were however earnestly injured in the incident which took place at a location between Okene and Lokoja, Kogi State on Sunday night.

A security source verbalized on Monday that the soldiers were men of the 322 Artillery Battalion, and the Fourth Brigade Garrison, Ekeunwa, Benin in Edo State.

The PUNCH   learnt that the 850 soldiers were expected to give fillip to the perpetual counter-terrorism operation in Borno and Adamawa states on completion of the counter- insurgency course.

Our source verbally expressed   there were suspicions that the assailants were insurgents because of the intensity of the gunfire directed at the vans conveying the soldiers from both sides of the road.

He integrated that the soldiers, who shot their way through the ambuscade,   passed the night at the Nigeria Army formation in Lokoja.

The four injured soldiers, according to him,   were taken to a military facility in Lokoja while   the commanders of the troops addressed the others on Monday morning.

The source verbalized,   “There was an assailment on soldiers along the Okene-Lokoja Road on Sunday night. Four of the soldiers were solemnly wounded in the assailment though all of them are still alive and are receiving treatment at Lokoja.

“The soldiers were peregrinating for a course at Kontagora, where they are expected to be deployed in the North-East for the war against the insurgents.

“The soldiers were pulled out from two military formations in Benin–the 322 Artillery Battalion and the Fourth Brigade Garrison in   Ekeunwan, Benin.

“It was not long that the soldiers returned from a peacekeeping operation in Sudan; they were members of the NIBBATT 41 that returned to the country about two months ago.

“The soldiers were taken unawares as the assailants operated from both sides of the road and got four of the soldiers solemnly wounded.

“However, they returned the fire and passed through to Lokoja where they were addressed   the following morning. I believe as I verbalize with you that they must have left for Kotangora to participate in the orchestrated course.”

The   source verbalized that there were feelings that somebody might have given out information on the kineticism of the troops from Benin to Kontagora.

Efforts to get the comment of the Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, on the latest ambuscade were futile as the calls to his mobile telephone betokened that it was switched off.

It will be recalled that about 190 Nigerian troops were ambuscaded by militants a few kilometres from Okene on January 19, 2013.
The militants were verbally expressed to have cut through the convoy of Mali-bound Nigerian Army peacekeepers travelling in three luxury buses via Kaduna to Bamako, Mali.

They first hit the convoy with   Improvised Explosive Devices planted on the highway afore firing on the troops afterwards. Two soldiers were killed and several others injured during the assailment.

A few days after the incident, a group, Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis-Sudan, claimed that it carried out the assailment. The group is a break-away faction of   Boko Haram.

CAS rules out sabotage in case of missing jet

Meanwhile, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, on Monday dismissed insinuations linking the missing Air Force Alpha jet to sabotage.

Amosu, who verbalized with State House correspondents after a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan and   Vice-President   Namadi Sambo, over the incident, additionally expressed hope that the two crew members might still be alive.

The   Alpha jet marked NAF 466 went missing while on an operation against insurgents in Adamawa State on Friday.

While noting that the search operation had been arduous, the CAS verbally expressed he would provide credible information about the   jet afore the cessation of this week.

He verbalized, ‘‘One of our Alpha Jets went on routine operation in the North-East . On   its return, the pilots lost contact with the control towers and that made us to immediately initiate a search.

“But I am hopeful that afore the terminus of the day or week we should be able to provide credible information as to the location of the aircraft and then the pilots.

“But one thing is pellucid whatever quandary they had, an ejection was contemplated. It is therefore my hope that the pilots are still alive.’’

Amosu verbally expressed the possibility of sabotage was zero given the fact that the Air Force was in full control of the nation’s air space.

He verbally expressed, “Sabotage? No, because it is a distance of just from Maiduguri to Yola. We are in full control of the air space. But don’t forget that when you lose radio signal, it becomes very arduous. There are so many   possibilities but we are working on them.”

Amosu, who expounded that weather had hampered the search operation,   withal applauded the cooperation that had been offered by citizens in endeavors to find the jet.

He verbalized with the information accumulated so far, the ascendant entities had got “an idea” of the area the aircraft could be.

The CAS integrated, “The weather has not been auxiliary as we have deployed all our surveillance capability, the citizens have been very, very subsidiary and we have got good information from them.

“But you ken, in the aviation sector, we have some concrete information that we ought to have to make the search facile.

“But the information we are getting from the citizens is good but not sufficient enough for us to define the area of search. But we have a conception of where the aircraft could be.

“Do not forget that it is the open Sahel. Some people may cerebrate it is facile but in the open Sahel, sometimes it is even very arduous.

“Human beings standing may look akin to trees and again the area we are verbalizing about we have operations going on there and we have inhibitions as to how low we come to conduct the search.”

Farmers in the Gombi Local Regime Area of Adamawa State reportedly claimed on Sunday that they optically discerned   a low-flying aircraft that might have crashed   near Gabun, a village in the area.

Senate to consider Jonathan’s $1bn loan request

Barring any last minute change, the Senate will on resumption on Tuesday (today) consider President Goodluck Jonathan’s request for a $1bn loan to fight terrorism.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Ita Enang, substantiated this while briefing journalists in Abuja, on Monday.

“Then there was the request from Mr. President for $1bn loan. The request will be laid on the order paper for consideration by the Senate,” he verbalized.

Jonathan, had in a letter to the National Assembly which was read during plenary a day afore legislators went on vacation,   verbalized he needed the   loan to upgrade equipment, training and logistics of armed forces and other security agencies.

In llorin, Kwara State, the Minister of National Planning, Dr. Sulaiman Abubakar,   verbalized on Monday that Nigeria could not win its   terrorism war with divisions among its citizens.

He verbally expressed that it was imperative for all stakeholders to   collaborate with the regime in its efforts to tackle insurgency.

The minister, who verbalized with journalists,   reminded Nigerians that terrorism     did not commence with the   Jonathan administration.

He verbalized that there had been former threats to national tranquility and stability that were not handled well.

He verbalized that Nigerians, in lieu of the Jonathan regime, should be incriminated for the country’s inability to address the security challenges.

Abubakar verbally expressed, “The challenges we are facing today in the area of insecurity are not an incipient phenomenon. It is a build-up. It commenced some years back. We got to where we are now not on the account of Mr. President, but on the account of our inability as a people   to identify what constitutes threat to our lives.

“You cannot win the war on terrorism as you cannot win any war at all in any country if that territory remains divided. What I visually perceive in Nigeria is that the regime is doing its own but our people in the North-East and some of our people, who I would not optate to mention, are not cumulated. There are divisions and dissenting voices. With that you cannot win such a war.

“For any strategy to work, it must go along the line of ground strategy. Every party must be on the same page to authentically prosecute that war.