Buhari to PROBE Service Chiefs

A comprehensive probe of the prosecution of the war against Boko Haram and the spending of defence budget is the offing, New Telegraph has learnt. A top military source said at the weekend that the incoming administration of Major General Muhammadu Buhari, was planning to institute the probe during which some service chiefs, past and present, would be summon to defend their tenure, especially how defence budget was spent under their watch. This emerged as the military have arrested suspected supplier of food and fuel to Boko Haram as well as rescuing 260 women and children in Chalawa, Adamawa State.

Also, some group of women and children earlier rescued from Sambisa Forest narrated their ordeal yesterday in the hands of Boko Haram. The source said the incoming administration was considering setting up a truth and reconciliation committee on the six-year old terror war.

The Boko Haram insurgency, which started in 2009 in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, has claimed about 15, 000 lives, destroyed property and turned thousands of people to refugees. It was also gathered that some former service chiefs and military commanders that held strategic operational and command positions, might appear or be asked to appear before the panel, whenever it is constituted, to give account of what they did and knew about the fight against insurgency.

The source said the move might not be in bad faith, but to put the records straight for posterity. He added that Buhari believed that more information on the Boko Haram insurgency should be provided for Nigerians and the international community. According to him, the president-elect’s declaration that Boko Haram is a “fraud” is indicative of his belief that “better and further” explanations on the devastating insurgency have to be provided to the public. Besides, Buhari may be interested in knowing what was responsible for the commendable manner the military turned the tide against Boko Haram after the postponement of the presidential election in February.

The source said: “I hope you will treat this information well. I want to let you know that the retired no-nonsense General, who has been elected president, may cause to be established a truth or peace and reconciliation committee. “This committee, from what I know very well, is not going to be a vindictive exercise, but a medium for more expose to be made on the phenomenon called Boko Haram and the counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency fight prosecuted by our military.

“Let me tell you that the statement he made that Boko Haram is a ‘fraud’, is loaded; you don’t expect a General and former head of state, to say too much. “In fact, the General may really want Nigerians and the global community to understand the momentum which the counterinsurgency war took a few months ago.

“You know more than 40 territories have, within a period of months, been liberated, while between then and now, almost all Boko Haram’s training camps and strongholds, including those in their biggest stronghold of Sambisa Forest, have been destroyed.” It was also learnt that a former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Abdulrahman Dambazau, may have been shortlisted as the next National Security Adviser (NSA). Another source, who also spoke in confidence with New Telegraph, said “Considering how strategic the office of the NSA is, I can tell you that the next president, who will be sworn in on May 29, is likely to pick a former COAS, General Dambazzau, as NSA. “If that happens, I tell you it will pass as a good choice, because he is a very competent General.”

It was also gathered that the case of a former Commander of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) in Baga, Borno State, Brigadier General E. Ransome-Kuti, “may now be treated administratively.” It was also learnt at the weekend that no fewer than 275 women and children rescued by troops from the Sambisa Forest have finally arrived in Yola for rehabilitation. Speaking on their horrific experiences, Falmata Ahmadu, a 22-year-old mother of two, said they endured three days of tortuous journey after they were rescued before finally arriving Yola.

‘’All praise be to God, for rescuing our lives. I had since lost hope that we will get out of Sambisa; these people are really wicked. ‘’Even my enemy I will not pray for him to be there,’’ she added. Another victim, Lami Musa, who gave birth two days before they were rescued said: ’’It’s only God that save us from them. ‘’When they (insurgents) heard that soldiers were advancing on them, they asked us to follow them; but we declined. I told them I can’t even raise my head up because of the birth pain that I was experiencing.

‘’They just started stoning us for refusing to run with them and in the process many were killed instantly, including children. ‘’As soon as they started scampering, we saw soldiers coming to our direction; then we stood up and told them that we were all abducted. This is how we were rescued,’’ she said. She added that many women gave birth to babies while many children and women died of hunger and malnutrition. On their arrival in Yola, the women were registered, fed and given medical care.

Many critically malnourished babies and children have been put on intravenous drips in the clinic and 21 have been hospitalised for gunshot wounds and fractured limbs, said a camp official. Through interviews the officials were trying to determine where the women and children are from. “Based on registration we have carried out so far, none of them is from Chibok,” said Zakari Abubakar, Malkohi camp team leader for the National Emergency Management Agency. Almost all are from Gumsuri village near Chibok and which had been attacked many times in the past year, said Abubakar.

Meanwhile, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) in a statement by the Director of Defence Information (DDI), Major General Chris Olukolade, said yesterday that a suspected supplier of fuel and food to terrorists had been arrested at Daban Shata in Baga, Borno State. He said the military, based on intelligence, had been trailing him till he was eventually trapped in the early hours of Sunday. He was said to be undergoing interrogation.

“In another development, troops on patrol yesterday located 260 women and children in the outskirts of Chalawa village in Adamawa state where they had been held up while trying to escape from terrorists. They have now been conveyed back to their various communities in Madagali after undergoing the normal security profiling. “Some of them disclosed that they had to abandon their homes to escape from the terrorists when Madagali came under their attack, while others were actually abducted and taken there.

The terrorists were however sacked from the Madagali recently. “A number of terrorists however died in an encounter with troops who caught up with them as they fled prior to the recovery of the women and children. Some of the terrorists still managed to escape with varying degrees of gunshot wounds. Others who were captured are now being interrogated by intelligence officers.

“A machine gun, some rounds of ammunition, as well as some motorcycles and bicycles were also captured from the terrorists. A member of the vigilante group serving as guide to the troops was however wounded,” the DHQ stated.

Source: New Telegraph